The 17th January saw the House of Lords debate the second reading of the Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill

With £2.1 Billion of projects announced by Government the following day as part of their Levelling Up approach, this subject is key to rural communities who have suffered from disadvantage for so long.

There were some contributions highlighting the needs of rural communities which also mentioned the Rural Services Network.

Lord Foster of Bath highlighted the work done by the House of Lords Select Committee on the rural economy from 2019 which concluded after a detailed inquiry:

"We can no longer allow the clear inequalities between the urban and rural to continue unchecked."

He continued:

"It is clear - at least to me - that any Bill that aims to level up should have, at least as one of its key components, steps that will start the process of levelling up between urban and rural communities. The challenge now is well illustrated by recent work by the Rural Services Network. Using government headline metrics, it demonstrated that if all rural areas together were treated as a single region, their need for levelling up would be greater than any other region in the country. However, the Bill does nothing to address that challenge."

Baroness Mallalieu shared some key statistics about rural areas and added:

“it is not just those who live in rural areas who currently miss out. We all do, because rural areas are 18% less productive than the national average. However, if that gap was closed by levelling up and regeneration, £43 billion would be added to England’s earnings alone and we would all benefit.

The overwhelming case for rural regeneration has so far been missed, historically and politically. I suspect that the party opposite has often taken rural votes for granted, while on our side of the House we have focused on our urban heartlands. However, in the past, when money has been given to a region, too often it has been sucked into the urban part of it away from the rural, which is my fear for the Bill."

You can read the full transcript of the debate at this link