Select Committee on Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Written Evidence


Memorandum submitted by the English Regions Network (Appendix 14)

  1.  The English Regions network represents all eight English Regional Assemblies.

  As Regional Assemblies we are responsible for integrating regional strategies, regional spatial and transport planning and the scrutiny of Regional Development Agencies and as a result to date we have contributed actively to the Haskins Review of Rural Delivery and the Rural Strategy 2004.

  Owing to the short consultation timescale it has not possible for all Assemblies to discuss the attached submission below with their Regional Assembly Members. The submission represents ERN's initial response to the draft Bill.

MEMBERSHIP OF THE INTEGRATED AGENCY BOARD AND THE COMMISSION FOR RURAL COMMUNITIES

  2.  There should be provision within the Bill for Regional Assemblies, as representative bodies for their regions, to make recommendations to the Secretary of State on membership. Additionally their could be provision for there to be a designated member of the Board for each of the English regions.

GENERAL PURPOSES (CHAPTER 1 SECTION 2 AND CHAPTER 2 SECTION 18) IA AND CRC WORKING WITH OTHER PUBLIC AGENCIES

  3.  The general purpose of the IA and the CRC should include a clear reference to the need to work with other public sector agencies at the regional level in support of regional strategies and plans. Especially where those strategies and plans have statutory backing such as the Regional Spatial Strategy and the Regional Economic Strategy, and those which have broad regional ownership, such as Integrated Regional Strategies. This is particularly important in enabling regional flexibility in how the IA operates and recognising that different modes of delivery will be appropriate in different regions.

  4.  There is a need for clearer direction in the Bill on the role of other agencies who have an influence on the purposes of the IA. The extent to which agencies need to co-operate to achieve common objectives, strategies and plans has increased sharply and is itself a key component of sustainable development. There is a need for stronger direction in the Bill to the role of Regional Assemblies as Regional Planning Bodies (RPB)and as regional representative bodies. Similarly, there should be reference to the role of RDAs who through their new role in rural delivery will also play an increasingly important role in shared agendas for the environment.

STRONGER COMMITMENT TO SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

  5.  Although reference to the commitment to sustainable development is made clearly in the adjoining policy statement, references in the draft bill are rather vague. This maybe because it is rather difficult to define and therefore difficult to explain in more length in legislation, however it is such an important issue that it is a weakness that there is no requirement to work within the provisions of the UK Sustainable Development Strategy or the Regional Sustainable Development Framework or corresponding strategy. We think the statements around sustainable development should be strengthened for both the new Agencies and those partners who wish to co-operate with them.

REGIONAL ASSEMBLIES AS REGIONAL PLANNING BODIES

  6.  The accompanying policy statement is generally very helpful but does not make clear reference to the role of Regional Assemblies as the designated regional planning bodies. The role of RAs as the RPBs and the requirements of the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004 are severely under-represented in both the draft Bill and the accompanying policy statement. This needs to be addressed or risks sending contrary signals about the importance of the new spatial planning process where planning is also expected to deliver outcomes for the environment and sustainable development.

JOINED UP GOVERNMENT POLICY

  7.  While it would not be expected that primary legislation setting up new agencies would make detailed reference to government initiatives such as the Sustainable Communities plans, the paucity of reference to the other established contextual policies and plans that directly impinge on the duties of the new IA is a concern. Issues of enormous significance such as brownfield land, housing, devolved delivery on housing and transport policy etc will play a major part of the ability of the IA to achieve its purposes.

IA REGIONAL STRATEGIES

  8.  Although it might be regarded as a departure for primary legislation concerned with the setting up of new national bodies, the precedent of requiring that regionally focussed strategies and plans are produced was set in the Regional Development Agencies Act with the Regional Economic Strategies. A requirement that the IA working with Environment Agency and the Forestry Commission have a requirement to produce regionally based strategies and plans should be written into the Bill.

JOINED UP DEFRA AGENCIES

  9.  The Policy Statement makes clear the need for the DEFRA family of agencies to co-operate closely, however this needs to be more clearly set out in the legislation in some form. In practice the roles will still be quite confusing to other agencies and some attempt could be made in the Bill to make this clearer.

SCRUTINY ROLE

  10.  The Bill should acknowledge Regional Assembly scrutiny activities which are aimed at improving the delivery of policy at a regional level. ERN would a scrutiny role for Assemblies over the regional activities of the IA to be explored.

REVIEW AND RESEARCH (CHAPTER 1 SECTIONS 3 AND 4)

  11.  The Bill should provide stronger emphasis on the IA working within a clear evidence base. The IA will need to work in partnership with other agencies, and at a regional level with the Regional Observatories, to share information and provide a robust evidence base for policy development and decision-making.

  12.  The ERN also seeks clarification over the provisions in section 10 (Advisory and consultancy work) that "At the request of the Agency, the public authority must inform the Agency in writing whether the advice has been rejected and, if so, why" and what implications this would have for the public authority, particularly in relation to the carrying out of statutory functions. There could be resource implications arising from this requirement, which would need to be recognized.

English Regions Network

February 2005





 
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