This report has been written by Roger Tym & Partners with Oxford Consultants for Social Inclusion on behalf of the Marine Management Organisation (MMO).

Future marine plans are expected to deliver the vision set out in the UK Marine Policy Statement (MPS) of “clean, healthy, safe, productive and biologically diverse oceans and seas”. The MPS requires this vision to be delivered sustainably – meaning that economic considerations need to be integrated with social considerations as well as implications for the marine environment. Marine planning is therefore required to have positive terrestrial as well as marine impacts, and deliver “a strong, healthy and just society” with marine development which is “benefiting society as whole, [and] contributing to resilient and cohesive communities”.1 Further, the MPS states that marine planning should contribute to sustainable economic growth “both in regeneration areas and areas that already benefit from strong local economies” through integrating with terrestrial planning and engagement with coastal communities.

The report aims to help marine planning deliver this latter objective of maximising the socio-economic benefits of marine planning in the East marine area. It is a sister document to the national report entitled Maximising the socio-economic impacts of marine planning for English coastal communities (provided under separate cover).