The primary goal of the VST Photometric H{alpha} Survey of the Southern Galactic Plane and Bulge (VPHAS+) is to collect single-epoch ugri broad-band and Ha narrow-band photometry across the southern Galactic Plane within the latitude range -5{deg}<b<+5{deg} down to point source magnitudes of ~21 or better. The VPHAS+ footprint also includes the inner Galactic Bulge, defined as a 20x20 deg^2^ box around the Galactic Centre: this assures optical coverage of the full VVV footprint. For all massive OBA stars this survey is deep enough to explore all but the most heavily obscured locations of the southern Plane, reaching to >4kpc from the Sun. These data will increase the number of known southern emission line stars by up to an order of magnitude, yielding much better statistics on important short-lived types of object. The wide-area uniform photometry obtained will also facilitate stellar population studies, capable of tracing structure over much of the southern Plane. VPHAS+ will trawl the star-formation history of the Galaxy as seen in stellar remnants of all types.