The Rural Services Network is part of the Rural Coalition, an alliance of 13 national rural organisations, which has written to the Prime Minister Liz Truss to welcome her to the new role, and also highlight concerns about the cost of living crisis facing rural residents. 

The letter included the key questions on issues such as affordable rural housing and fair funding for rural public services that the Rural Coalition had posed to both candidates for the role of Leader of the Conservative Party in recent months, with an offer to work with the Prime Minister to develop and implement solutions to these important issues.

The letter ends with an offer to work constructively with the Prime Minister and the Government to ensure that measures introduced to tackle the cost of living crisis are properly rural proofed from the outset to ensure that rural areas play their full part in the country’s future prosperity.

 You can read the content of the letter at this link

The Rural Coalition has also targeted the new Secretary of State at DEFRA, welcoming Rt Hon Ranil Jayawardena to the role, and offering to work closely with him to help support rural communities highlighting the range of challenges that rural service providers face delivering services to sparsely populated rural communities.

This letter also included a number of steps that the Rural Coalition would like the Government to take to help grow the rural economy.  These steps are set out below:

• Make rural proofing a reality and embedding it across Government
• Introducing a fairer funding regime addressing the disparities between urban and rural areas
• Achieving an appropriate and meaningful increase in rural affordable housing, safeguarded for future generations
• Unlocking the potential of rural economies and enabling rural businesses and entrepreneurs to thrive
• Ensuring a ‘just’ transition to net zero and improving infrastructure so that rural residents and businesses are not unfairly penalised
• Providing equity of access to services for rural people and improving local transport to make it more flexible and sensitive to local needs
• Supporting social infrastructure to enable rural communities to make the best use of local resources and networks
• A comprehensive strategy or vision for rural areas to unlock their potential to contribute to the future prosperity of the nation

You can read the letter at this link

Rural Coalition members include:

• Action with Communities in Rural England
• Arthur Rank Centre
• CPRE, the countryside charity
• Country Land & Business Association
• National Association of Local Councils
• National Centre for Rural Health and Care
• National Farmers Union
• National Housing Federation
• Plunkett Foundation
• Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors
• Royal Town Planning Institute
• Rural Services Network
• Town and Country Planning Association