About My Region

Goeography

The South East region encompasses:

• 19 county and unitary authorities; and
• 55 districts.

These stretch in an arc around London, from Thanet in the south-east to the New Forest in the south-west and to Aylesbury Vale and Milton Keynes in the north-west.

The region has the second-largest economy of the English regions after the capital and this is advanced, high cost, high income and based on services.

Regional Development Agency

The South East England Development Agency (SEEDA) is responsible for economic development and regeneration. It stresses that economic prosperity must be sustainable. One of its key targets is to reduce the rate of increase in the region’s impact on the environment.

Regional economy

The Regional Economic Strategy (RES) for the South East focuses on three key objectives:

• Global Competitiveness;
• Smart Growth; and
• Sustainable Prosperity.

Within the Sustainable Prosperity objectives SEEDA has set a target to achieve a 30% increase over the 2003 baseline in GVA generated per tonne of materials entering the waste stream by 2016. (Source:http://www.seeda.co.uk/RES/docs/RES_2006-2016.pdf )

Environmental technologies

The RES identifies growth of the South East Environmental Technologies sector (which includes waste and resource management) as a major business opportunity for the region:

“The global market for environmental technologies and services is estimated to be worth £515 billion and is growing dramatically driven largely by legislation to curb global warming. This is a major opportunity for business in this sector.”
(Source:SEEDA RES; 2006-20016, pg. 106).