South East Councils (SEC) has today published a new agenda ahead of tomorrow’s King’s Speech.
Securing a Greater South East (SAGSE) is an agenda to ensure our region is an even better place to live, work and do business.
Established in 2009, with most local authorities as members, South East Councils (SEC) aims to represent the views of local authorities in the region and work in partnership to secure the conditions for economic growth, success & prosperity for the South East – and the wider UK.
SEC utilises a cross-party approach to bring together senior councillors from all main parties and political groups to gauge a broad range of views in order to act as an authorative reference point.
As Government and Parliament consider priorities for the future, Ministers, MPs and Peers will want to ensure the South East has a secure economic foundation to meet notable challenges, including climate change and regional population set to reach 10 million people by 2030.
For the South East that will require:
- Devolving financial competencies to allow the South East to decide on how invest in its future – rather than lobbying Whitehall to get our own taxpayers’ money back.
- Endowing local government with powers to ensure adequate infrastructure and public services provision – to make the South East region attractive as a place to live, work and do business.
- Creating a new regional delivery model to harness innovation, experience and funding – to empower locally elected representatives to deliver for the communities they serve.
The agenda also showcases our sectoral priorities covering transport, housing, climate and skills.
- 90% of Councillors supported their local area gaining more powers on Transport;
- 74% of all respondents supported their local area gaining more powers to provide affordable housing;
- 74% of all respondents answered that they support the transfer of more powers to their locality over ‘providing acces to skills and training’ to their local area.
SAGSE is supported by key figures, including those above, from our South East 1,000 Regional Monitor polling with Savanta ComRes.
See the agenda here.
Notes
- South East Councils is a voluntary association with most councils in the South East region as members.
- Our Securing a Greater South East agenda is available to view and download here.
- The South East 1,000 Regional Monitor, sees SEC partner with polling agency Savanta ComRes and economist Vicky Pryce to produce a unique monitor of public, business and civic cohorts from the UK’s most populous region.
