Living in the North West - Ensuring a Strong, Healthy and Just Society

Please note Regional Strategies / Regional Spatial Strategies were revoked with immediate effect on 6th July 2010.

The former Regional Spatial Strategy (RSS) sought to promote cohesive, mixed and thriving communities, where people want to live, now and in the future. It aimed to ensure that everyone can have a decent home, which they can afford, in a secure environment, with reasonable access to health care, educational provision and recreational facilities.

Specifically it sought to:

Build on current knowledge of housing markets in the region to help deliver a better balance between housing demand and supply
Provide for additional housing to meet changing needs, support economic development, address the requirement for affordable accommodation and ensure a choice of housing types
Improve the quality of the housing stock and its environment

The Regional Spatial Strategy set a housing figure for the North West as a whole and for each Local Planning Authority (including the Lake District National Park Authority). It also set out a target for the proportion of housing to be delivered on previously-developed land.

Policies encouraged the provision of a range of health, sport, recreation, cultural and eductaion facilities for all members of the community.

There are a number of relevant documents and research reports which provide important context:

Relevant documents

Regional Housing Strategy

The latest version of the Regional Housing Strategy was published in January 2009. The three objectives of the Strategy are to achieve the right quantity of housing, continuing to raise the quality of the existing housing stock and connecting people to the improved housing offer.

More details about the Regional Housing Strategy, supporting strategies and research are available here.

Research

The policies in the former Regional Spatial Strategy were underpinned by a number of pieces of research:

North West Housing Need and Demand Study (August 2005)
Household Migration and Projection Patterns (August 2006)
Impact of DCLG 2003 Household Projections on Household Growth Estimates Study (September 2006)
Technical Advisory Paper on North West RSS and Health (December 2004)

Since the development of the former Regional Spatial Strategy a greater emphasis has been put on the need to plan on the basis of Housing Market Areas. They are areas which reflect linkages between places where people live and work. 4NW have developed research on these issues to inform future policy development: