Economic Growth and Development
Development provides huge challenges and opportunities for the wildlife in the South East since every development has the potential to damage or create wildlife habitats.
Economic development is vital for the South East, but if our biodiversity is to survive it is essential that all development is guided by the following two principles (as contained in the UK Governments approach to delivering Sustainability Development).
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Living within environmental limits: respecting the limits of the planet's environment, resources and biodiversity - to improve our environment and ensure that the natural resources needed for life are unimpaired and remain so for future generations
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Ensuring a strong, healthy and just society: meeting the diverse needs of all people in existing and future communities, promoting personal well-being, social cohesion and inclusion, and creating equal opportunity for all.
In the South East ...
A snapshot of the region's economy is contained in the Regional Economic Strategy. It says that: ‘Using any conventional measure, the South East is one of the UK's most successful and prosperous regions. Between 1997 and 2003 it was the region with the highest growth in Gross Value Added (GVA) per head and productivity, and it was the region with the best performing labour market. It was also the region with the lowest proportion of its population living in the most deprived areas. Given its overall success, it is not surprising that the South East is a major locomotive of the UK economy and the most important net contributor to the Exchequer.'
Further planned development is outlined in the region's Spatial Strategy - the South East Plan. But the sustainability appraisal for the most recent version of the Plan concludes that if this is likely to lead to: ‘Significant environmental costs, to the point of potentially approaching environmental limits (although this is difficult to demonstrate empirically). These include:
- water quality in the Solent area, and possibly elsewhere due to constraints on waste-water treatment;
- water resources throughout much of the region;
- air quality near the region's airports;
- biodiversity, as exemplified by problems in ensuring that the integrity of sites of international nature conservation importance is not significantly affected; and
- increased flooding due to climate change and the location of some new development in areas of flood risk.'
This suggests that development in the South East could have a devastating effect on our wildlife and landscape.
However, development is essential in securing a future for our wildlife. Both the South East Plan and the Regional Economic Strategy contain policies that aim to support biodiversity and every new development has the opportunity to build places for wildlife supporting networks of green spaces or green infrastructure. Due to the high level of development that is planned in the SE the benefit for biodiversity could be massive. But we need the following in order for this to be realised:
- The valuing of services provided by the regon's ecosystems and starting to support and work with these ecosystems to gain improved services;
- A reduction in the demands on the natural environment by increasing efficiency and decreasing waste