North Yorkshire County Council reports that senior Council figures have claimed that Liz Truss’s new Government should place the rural economy at the heart of its policies to provide a multi-billion pound boost to the nation’s beleaguered finances

Despite economic growth being at the heart for Truss’s administration’s policy-making, there are concerns that the policy of levelling up the nation’s economy and eradicating regional inequalities may no longer be at the centre of her own ideologies.

Leader, Cllr Carl Les, stressed that the rural economy needs to be placed at the centre of the Government’s policies to ensure that it can realise its full potential.

A study that was published in April by the APPG for Rural Business and the Rural Powerhouse (APPG) found a succession of issues were blighting the countryside and holding back its economic potential.

The report revealed that the countryside economy is lagging nearly a fifth behind the national average, and highlighted a fractured planning system which has failed those living and working in rural areas, and that a lack of skills provision has been responsible for a “brain drain” of workers from the countryside.

The APPG for Rural Business and the Rural Powerhouse also warned that urgent action was needed to address labour shortages, and claimed the Government was not fulfilling its commitments to provide rural communities with full-fibre internet connections and access to 4G connectivity.

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North Yorkshire County Council - Rural economy needs to be at heart of policies