South East England is one of the nine official regions of England, designated in 1994 and adopted for statistical purposes in 1999. Its boundaries include Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, East Sussex, Hampshire, Isle of Wight, Kent, Oxfordshire, Surrey and West Sussex. In common usage, however, the area referred to as the 'south east' can vary considerably.

As with the other regions of England, apart from Greater London, the South East has no elected government and few central powers, the creation of elected regional governments proposed by the Labour Party after its election in 1997 having been aborted. The headquarters for the region's governmental bodies, such as they are, are in Guildford. The largest city in the region (by population) is Brighton and Hove, but the dominant influence on the region's economy is neighbouring London. The highest point is Walbury Hill in Berkshire at . The Highest Point in the South- East's Biggest county, Kent, is Ide Hill at 260m/ 850 ft.

Historical boundaries

thumb|right|A notice in Oxford from the Government Office for the South East.
Until 1999, there was a South East Standard Statistical Region which also included the counties of Essex, Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire and Greater London. The former South East Civil Defence Region covered the same area as the current government office region.

Alternative definitions

In unofficial usage, the South East can refer to a varying area - sometimes only to Kent, East Sussex, West Sussex, and Surrey, but more usually to the former Standard Statistical Region, which corresponded approximately to the London commuter belt.

Demographics

The population of the region as of the 2001 census was 8,000,550, making it the most populous English region. The major conurbations of the region include Brighton/Worthing/Littlehampton (population in 2001 461,000), Portsmouth (442,000), Reading (370,000) and Southampton (304,000). Settlements closer to London are part of the conurbation known as the Greater London Urban Area.

The South East has the highest percentage of people born outside of the UK other than London. 2005 Estimates state 88.5% of people as White British, 4.5% Other White (inc. 1.0% Irish), 3.1% South Asians, 1.4% Mixed Race, 1.3% Black British, 0.6% Chinese, 0.6% Other.

Local government

The official region consists of the following subdivisions:

See: List of districts in south east England by population

Politics of the area

The South East of England is the most Conservative voting region of the UK in terms of both seats and votes. The area also has some strong supporting seats for other parties such as Slough for Labour and Lewes for the Liberal Democrats. However, the safest Conservative seat in the country, Buckingham, has a majority of over 38%.

The South East England Regional Assembly is based on the A3100 road in Guildford near the London Road railway station.

Transport

260px|thumb|Most main routes in the region are radials from London. Shown here is the [[A21 road|A21. It is one of the major north-south routes connecting London and commuter towns and the coast]]
260px|thumb|[[High Wycombe railway station in Buckinghamshire is a major commuter station on the Chiltern Main Line between London and Birmingham]]

The main road transport routes are along the M1 through Buckinghamshire; the M40 through Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire; the M4 through Berkshire and Buckinghamshire; the M2 motorway/A2 and M20 through Kent; the M23 through West Sussex; the M3 through Hampshire and the A34 through Hampshire, Berkshire and Oxfordshire. The east-west corridor through the south of the region is provided by the A27 and the M27. The main intercontinental airport is Gatwick Airport, with regional airports at Kent International Airport (Ramsgate), Shoreham Airport and Southampton Airport. Heathrow Airport is in Greater London but also serves (and is serviced by) the South East region. The Great Western Main Line passes through Berkshire and southern Buckinghamshire. The South Eastern Main Line and High Speed 1 pass through Kent. The Brighton Main Line passes through Surrey and West Sussex. The West Coast Main Line passes through northern Buckinghamshire. The Chiltern Main Line is a major commuter line between Birmingham and London passing through central Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire. The Port of Dover and the port at Folkestone have many ferry services to France and Belgium.

Transport policy

As part of the transport planning system the Regional Assembly is under statutory requirement to produce a Regional Transport Strategy (RTS) to provide long term planning for transport in the region. This involves region wide transport schemes such as those carried out by the Highways Agency and Network Rail.
Within the region the local transport authorities carry out transport planning through the use of a Local Transport Plan (LTP) which outlines their strategies, policies and implementation programme. The most recent LTP is that for the period 2006-11. In the South East region the following transport authorities have published their LTP online:
Bracknell Forest U.A., Brighton & Hove U.A., Buckinghamshire, East Sussex, Hampshire, Isle of Wight, Kent, Medway U.A., Milton Keynes U.A., Oxfordshire, Portsmouth U.A., Reading U.A., Slough U.A., Southampton U.A., Surrey, Windsor and Maidenhead U.A., Wokingham U.A. and West Sussex.

Economy

The South East of England is a very prosperous area with the second largest regional economy in the UK (after London), valued at £177 billion in 2006. GDP per capita in 2007 was estimated at £22,624, compared with a UK average of £19,956, making South East England the second richest region per capita, behind London.

Many high technology companies are located near the M3 in Surrey and the M4 in Berkshire. Sun Microsystems have their UK base in Blackwater near Camberley. Microsoft and Oracle have their UK headquarters next door to each other in Reading, as do the Yell Group. Symantec UK is in nearby Whitley. The Gatwick Diamond is also a hub for hi-tech industry, centred at Gatwick Airport with Epsom to the north and Burgess Hill to the south.

Berkshire

Companies in Berkshire essentially follow the M4 corridor. PepsiCo have their UK base in Theale as have Nvidia UK and Wolseley, the builders' and plumbers' merchants who own Bathstore and Plumb Center. Vodafone, High and Mighty and Bayer UK are based in Newbury. Pentax UK and Groupe SEB UK (owner of Krups, Moulinex, Rowenta, and Tefal) are in Langley near Slough. Mars Limited has a large chocolate factory also in Slough on the enormous Slough Trading Estate, as is ICI Paints, who own Cuprinol, Polyfilla, and Dulux. Honda UK, Citroën UK, Fiat UK, Black & Decker Europe, McAfee UK, LG Group UK, Amazon UK, Ingres UK, Telefónica O2 Europe UK and Reckitt Benckiser are also in Slough. Centrica, Morgan Crucible, and InterContinental Hotels Group are in Windsor. Interserve, the construction company, BG Group, Primark UK, and Guide Dogs for the Blind are in Reading. Porsche Cars Great Britain is in nearby Calcot. Borland UK is in Twyford and the Transport Research Laboratory is in Crowthorne. Harley-Davidson UK is in Pangbourne. HMV Group, Nortel UK, Hitachi UK, Hutchison 3G UK, Weight Watchers UK and Costain are in Maidenhead. Cable & Wireless, Dell UK, Panasonic UK, BMW UK, HP UK, Syngenta UK, Avis Europe (with Budget UK), Novell UK, 3M UK, and Waitrose are in Bracknell.

Surrey

Allianz Cornhill Insurance have their UK headquarters in Guildford as do Ericsson, Colgate-Palmolive UK, Sanofi-Aventis, Avaya UK, and Philips UK. Motor company McLaren is based in Woking as is the UK base of Yum Restaurants (owner of KFC) and Capgemini. Canon UK and Kimberley Clark Europe are in Reigate.
In the area straddling the M25, the huge Compass Group is based in Chertsey as is Samsung UK, Siemon UK, and the European headquarters of Electronic Arts; Thales Group UK is in Addlestone; and in Weybridge are the UK headquarters of Sony and Procter & Gamble, next door to each other near the Brooklands racing circuit, the local newspaper group Newsquest, the Central Veterinary Laboratory which is run by the Veterinary Laboratories Agency, and Toshiba have their UK Information Systems headquarters there, as well as another base in Camberley. Mouchel is in West Byfleet. Air Products UK is in Walton-on-Thames. Atkins, the civil engineering company, and Toyota UK (towards Banstead) are in Epsom. Dairy Crest is in Esher. Ann Summers is in Whyteleafe near Caterham. Pfizer UK is in Walton-on-the-Hill. Friends Provident is in Dorking. Edmund Nuttall, City Link Ltd., Adaptec UK and Krispy Kreme UK are in Camberley and S.C. Johnson UK is in Frimley Green. Siemens UK, Novartis UK, and AMD UK are in Frimley. ExxonMobil UK (Esso) is in Leatherhead. Although BP has its international headquarters in central London, most of its UK division (chemicals and energy) is headquartered at Sunbury-on-Thames, just inside the Surrey boundary. Enterprise Rent-a-Car UK is near Thorpe, near to Cemex UK and Thorpe Park (situated on a series of former gravel pits).

Buckinghamshire

George Wimpey, RAF Air Command, Hyundai UK, Dreams, the UK base of Ariston (now owned by Indesit), Wilkinson Sword, and Staples are based in High Wycombe. Johnson & Johnson UK have their base at Booker next to the M40 near Handy Cross. Kawasaki UK is in Bourne End. The UK base of Robert Bosch is in Denham. Martin-Baker is in Higher Denham. Pioneer UK is in Stoke Poges and Cummins have a design plant in Iver, with Pinewood Studios in Iver Heath. Servier Laboratories UK is in Wexham. The Barracuda Group (owner of Varsity), Lexmark UK and Trend Micro UK are in Marlow. Leica Geosystems is based in Milton Keynes, as is Argos, BP Oil UK (retail), WD-40 UK, Domino's Pizza UK, VW Group UK (VW and Audi), Luminar Leisure and Homebase. Welcome Break is in Newport Pagnell, and Mercedes-Benz UK is in Tongwell.

Hampshire

The Army have a large garrison in Aldershot, with Sandhurst being nearby. B&Q and Draper Tools are based in Chandler's Ford. Farnborough has many international aerospace companies including BAE Systems and QinetiQ, as well as Nokia UK, Autodesk UK, and Thomson Local directory. The Ordnance Survey and a factory of Ford are based in Southampton, and Skandia Insurance have their UK base there. Garmin Europe is in Hounsdown just west of Southampton. Much of the Royal Navy is based in Portsmouth. IBM is headquartered in Cosham, with large laboratories in Hursley House. Kenwood Limited is in Havant. Virgin Media and Serco Group are based in Hook. The AA is based in Basingstoke as are Shire plc the pharmaceuticals group, Eli Lilly UK, the Gas Safe Register (as was predecessor CORGI), and GAME. Motorola UK is in Chineham. Ineos is in Lyndhurst. Twinings (who also own Ovaltine) is in Andover. Arqiva are based in Crawley, Hampshire, four miles north-west of Winchester.

Sussex

The RSPCA is in Horsham and Cats Protection is in Haywards Heath. Roche Diagnostics' UK Headquarters and CAE Inc. UK are in Burgess Hill. Rolls-Royce Motor Cars make vehicles at Westhampnett. Virgin Atlantic is in Crawley as is Unilever Bestfoods, Spirent, G4S, Pilz UK and TUI Travel PLC. Sofa Workshop is in Petworth. The Body Shop is in Littlehampton. Palmer and Harvey is in Hove.

Kent

Geographer's A-Z Map Company is based in Borough Green. Bovis Homes is near Gravesend. Fairy is made by Procter & Gamble in Dartford, and Mazda UK is based there. Brake Bros Ltd is in Ashford. Cummins Power Generation is in Ramsgate. Hornby Railways is in Margate.

Oxfordshire

Oxford University Press, Electrocomponents and Amey plc are in Oxford. Motoring company Prodrive is based in Banbury along with Ascari. The UK base of Miele and Sophos are in Abingdon. BMW assemble the much-lauded MINI at Cowley, also the base of Unipart. Renault F1 is in Enstone. Travelodge UK is in Thame.

Education

Buckinghamshire, Medway and Kent, and Slough have an almost completely selective education system - not just a few grammar schools as other English areas may have. Kent has 33 grammar schools, Buckinghamshire 13, Medway 6 and Slough 4. The other areas are comprehensive. In the top thirty schools at A level, all but three are selective schools; two of the others are sixth form colleges and one is a comprehensive (in Oxford). However, the results for each county as a whole are not always directly related to the number of grammar schools, as Kent and Medway perform under average.

At GCSE, the area in the South East (and England) with the highest results is Buckinghamshire. Berkshire is split into unitary authorities, and Wokingham and Slough have the next best GCSE results. All of Berkshire's unitary authorities have results above the England average, with Windsor and West Berkshire considerably above average. Schools in Surrey and Hampshire also have good GCSE results, and they are above average in Oxfordshire, West Sussex, Medway and Kent. There are a small number of districts where results are significantly below average including the unitary authorities of Portsmouth (one of the lowest LEAs in the country), Southampton and Milton Keynes, and the districts of Oxford in Oxfordshire, Adur in West Sussex and Hastings in East Sussex.

Local media

As elsewhere in England, the media landscape in South East England is dominated by national television, radio, newspapers and magazines, most of which are based in London. Local media include:

• The BBC South region is based on Havelock Road in Southampton; it has the South Today regional programme. The BBC South East is based in Tunbridge Wells; it has the South East Today regional programme. Most of Buckinghamshire is in the BBC South and ITV South region but most of Milton Keynes UA is covered by the BBC East region from Norwich, with the Look East programme. The ITV region for most of Milton Keynes is Anglia Television with the Anglia Tonight programme from Norwich. The ITV region for the south of the area is Meridian Broadcasting, which has the local news programme Meridian Tonight broadcast from the ITV broadcasting centre at Whiteley, near Fareham.

• BBC Radios Surrey, Sussex, Solent, Oxford, Three Counties (Buckinghamshire & Milton Keynes), and Kent.

• Commercial radio stations including Heart Sussex (Brighton), Heart MK (Milton Keynes), Heart Berkshire (Reading), Heart Kent (Whitstable), Galaxy South Coast (previously known as Power FM) (Segensworth), Radio Mercury (Crawley), Passion Radio (Worthing), Heart Oxfordshire (Cowley), Kick FM (Newbury), the KMFM network of seven stations (Kent), 107.8 Arrow FM (Hastings), Bright 106.4 FM (Burgess Hill), Mix 107 (High Wycombe), 107.4 The Quay (Portsmouth), Spirit FM (Chichester), 107.5 Sovereign Radio (Hailsham), Isle of Wight Radio (Newport), Mix 96 (Aylesbury), 107.2 Win FM (Winchester), Delta FM (Bordon), Wave 105 (Fareham), Juice 107.2 (Brighton), 96.4 The Eagle (Guildford), 107.7 Splash FM (Worthing), Heart Hampshire (Segensworth), Reading 107 FM, The Saint (Southampton), and 107.6 Kestrel FM (Basingstoke).

• Local regional newspapers are the Southern Daily Echo (Southampton), Oxford Times, Oxford Journal, Portsmouth News, Argus (Brighton), Oxford Mail, Reading Evening Post, the KM Group titles (Kent), Surrey Advertiser, Reading Chronicle, Medway News, KOS Media titles (Kent).

• Play Radio UK, based out of Sussex, is a British internet radio station. Its output comprises two mainstream music radio streams, a talk radio stream, and several other genre-specific music streams.

See also

• Portal:South East England

• List of schools in the South East of England