Integrated Regional Strategy
In the 2002 White Paper ‘Your Region. Your Choice’, the Government encourages public bodies operating in the regions are encouraged to improve work closely together to ensure they ‘join up’ more effectively. The White Paper invited all regional chambers to take a lead in establishing the best arrangements for their particular region. As part of this process, regional partners worked together to produce a Regional Emphasis Document – the region’s response to the 2004 Spending Review (SR2004) in December 2003. Following on from this, the East of England Regional Assembly (EERA), in conjunction with Government Office for the East of England, the East of England Development Agency (EEDA) and other regional partners, developed an Integrated Regional Strategy (IRS) to ensure regional public bodies “join up” and that future regional priorities are addressed.
The IRS has involved a review and analysis of existing strategies and from this identification of priorities for the region. It will aim to join up different strategies, inform the process of reconciling any differences/ tensions and make explicit linkages, where appropriate, to the strategies of adjoining regions.
In summary, it provides
- a review of existing regional strategies
- an overarching regional framework
- key links between regional strategies
- scope to join up regional strategies
The IRS provides a joined up statement of regional priorities and as such it provides a clear statement to central Government of regional priorities, these are
1. Sustainable solutions for growth and regeneration.
2. To harness the region’s strengths in science, research and development.
3. To address persistent deprivation and social exclusion.
4. To achieve a step-change in efficiency of resource use.
5. To capture the benefits from international gateways and national transport corridors.
The East of England Regional Assembly approved the IRS on 3 February 2005.
