Nicholas Soames: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government when he expects the South East Plan to be revoked. [106756]

Robert Neill MP; Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State: The Localism Act provides for the abolition of regional strategies outside London in a two-stage process. The first stage, to remove the regional planning framework and prevent further strategies from being created, took effect when the Localism Act received Royal Assent on 15 November.

The second stage is to abolish the existing regional strategies by secondary legislation. It remains our intention to lay Orders in Parliament to that effect, subject to the outcome of the environmental assessments process, which is ongoing.