The National Rural Conference 2025

Please be aware registrations for this event are now closed. If you are a member and you would like post event material please send an email titled 'Post Event' to [email protected].

Conference Schedule:

Monday 15th September

10:00 - 11:00

Rural Fair Funding

• Cllr Roger Phillips, Chair of the Rural Services Network
  "Welcome and Introduction to the RSN National Rural Conference"
  - View Roger Phillips' biography here
  
  
• Adrian Jenkins, Founder and Chief Analyst, Pixel Financial Management
  "Fair Funding Review 2.0"
  - View Adrian Jenkins' biography here
  
  
• Rachael Sanders, Director of Finance, Herefordshire Council
  "Challenges in Rural Service Delivery"
  - View Rachael Sanders' biography here
  

13:30 - 15:30

Rural Economy & Regeneration

• Laura Dyer, Deputy Chief Executive Places, Engagement & Libraries, Arts Council
  "Cultural services in the rural economy: driving inclusive growth"
  - View Laura Dyer's biography here
  
  
• Ross Lowrie, Principal Manager (Low Carbon Growth & Net Zero), North East Combined Authority
  "Rural delivery & Devolution – a Combined Authority perspective"
  - View Ross Lowrie's biography here
  
  
• Sean Hughes, Senior Manager, PwC UK
  "AI skills and the rural economy"
  - View Sean Hughes' biography here

Tuesday 16th September

10:00 - 12:00

Rural Affordable Housing & Planning

• Ulrike Maccariello, Development Director, Hastoe Housing Association
  "Practical considerations for the delivery of social and affordable housing in rural England"
  - View Ulrike Maccariello's biography here
  
  
• Max Banfield, RHE Programme Manager, ACRE
  "Rural Housing Enablers and the ACRE Network"
  - View Max Banfield's biography here
  
  
• Katarina Kubinakova, Research Fellow, Countryside and Community Research Institute
  "The impact of devolution on affordable rural housing delivery: Key risks and opportunities"
  - View Katarina Kubinakova's biography here
  
  
• Sarah Crush, Social Value Manager, Thakeham working in strategic partnership with Plunkett UK
  "Community business at housing development"
  - View Sarah Crush's biography here

13:30 - 15:30

Rural Connectivity

• Cllr Nick Oliver, Cabinet Lead for Finance and Value for Money and Chris Thompson, Director of Digital and IT, Northumberland Council
  "Rural Digital Inclusion: Blueprint to Delivery, Northumberland"
  - View Nick Oliver's biography here
  - View Chris Thompson's biography here
  
  
• Chris Hockley, Head of Engagement, Digital Voice Programme, BT
  "An update on the UKs Digital Phone Switchover"
  - View Chris Hockley's biography here
  
  
• Bryn Jones, Director, Shared Rural Network
  "The Shared Rural Network - enabling mobile connectivity through collaboration"
  - View Bryn Jones' biography here
  
  
• Lianne Williams, Strategy, Policy and Engagement Advisor, Government Digital Service
  "GOV.UK One Login: Making it easier to access government services online"
  - View Lianne Williams' biography here
  
  
• Clare Evans, Director of Transformation, Tewkesbury Borough Council
  "Transforming Tewkesbury Borough through digital and data"
  - View Clare Evans' biography here

Wednesday 17th September

10:00 - 12:00

Rural Net Zero

• Andrew Oswald, Energy and Sustainability Manager, West Suffolk Council
  "West Suffolk’s Net Zero Journey and Solar Success"
  - View Andrew Oswald's biography here
  
  
• Dr Natalie Partridge, Research Associate in Rural Innovation, NICRE and Su Morgan, Founder/Director, Tadcrafters CIC
  "Sustainable Tadcaster Climathon: Community action towards climate resilience in Tadcaster"
  - View Dr Natalie Partridge's biography here
  - View Su Morgan's biography here
  
  
• Reece Emmitt, Stakeholder Engagement Manager, NESO (National Energy System Operator)
  "Rural Voices in Strategic Energy Planning"
  - View Reece Emmitt's biography here
  
  
• Sobia Khurram, Community Energy Advisor, Northern Powergrid
  "Powering Rural Futures: Community Energy Solutions for Net Zero"
  - View Sobia Kharram's biography here

13:30 - 15:30

Data that makes a Difference

• Kerry Booth, Chief Executive and Dan Jones, Data Analyst, The Rural Services Network
  "Delivering for All - Research Launch"
  - View Kerry Booth's biography here
  - View Dan Jones' biography here
  
  
• Maram Tabidi, Research and Engagement Officer, The Churchill Fellowship
  "An Introduction to The Churchill Fellowship"
  - View Maram Tabidi's biography here
  
  
• Rima Berry, Churchill Fellow, The Churchill Fellowship
  "Build it and they will come: Community Land in Trust"
  - View Rima Berry's biography here
  
  
• Howard Nelson, Churchill Fellow, The Churchill Fellowship
  "Helping small rural schools thrive - The only way to go from here, is together"
  - View Howard Nelson's biography here
  
  
• Philippa Simmonds, Postdoctoral Researcher, Countryside and Community Research Institute and Aimee Morse, Research Fellow, NICRE
  "Participatory research methods, a route to tangible rural outcomes"
  - View Philippa Simmonds' biography here
  - View Aimee Morse's biography here

Thursday 18th September

10:00 - 12:00

Rural Health & Care

• Dr Christina Dobson, Senior Research Associate, Newcastle University
  "Rural cancer inequalities: how, where, and why are rural patients doing worse when it comes to cancer"
  - View Christina Dobson's biography here
  
  
• Judith Vickress, Domestic Abuse Consultant and Churchill Fellow, The Churchill Fellowship
  "Breaking the Silence: Coordinating Rural Communities to End Domestic Abuse"
  - View Judith Vickress' biography here
  
  
• Dr Tim Sanders, Senior Clinical Lecturer in Rural Medicine, The University of Lancashire and Dr Chris Ford, Senior Lecturer in Accounting & Management, Lancaster University
  "The important role of Rural Hub Towns: The Penrith Case Study"
  - View Dr Tim Sanders' biography here
  - View Dr Chris Ford's biography here
  
  
• Lisa Farley, Head of Mental Health and Wellbeing, Young Somerset
  "Right Time, Right Support: Young Somerset’s Approach to Early and Effective Mental Health Intervention"
  - View Lisa Farley's biography here

13.30 - 15.30

Rural Transport

• David Peinturier, Consultant, Freight Innovation Fund, Connected Places Catapult
  "The power of innovation: leveraging low-cost and low-tech solutions to learn whilst tackling rural transportation challenges"
  - View David Peinturier's biography here
  
  
• Dr Natalie Partridge, Research Associate in Rural Innovation, NICRE
  "Sustainable Visitor Transport and Community Cargo Bikes"
  - View Dr Natalie Partridge's biography here
  
  
• Katherine Davies, Sustainable Travel Manager, Babergh District Council and Mid Suffolk District Council
  "Passenger Transport Pilots in Mid Suffolk"
  - View Katherine Davies' biography here
  
  
• Helen Marshall, Project Manager, Sustainable Transport, Norfolk County Council and Ali Clabburn, Chair and Founder, Mobilityways
  "IVORA – Increasing Vehicle Occupancy in Rural Areas. Use of technology to increase the number of car sharing journeys to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in King’s Lynn"
  - View Helen Marshall's biography here
  - View Ali Clabburn's biography here
  

Feedback from last year's conference:

Thank you very much for an extremely interesting week packed full of data and thought-provoking information. The resource is invaluable.

I attended the Rural Transport session. I thought it was very well planned and insightful. As a Councillor for a rural area on the edge of a town, a lack of public transport leaves our residents stranded, and is a detriment to the town as a whole, slowing economic activity by not bringing customers, workers and students from the outer villages. 

Thank you for a very well organised Conference.

I was really glad to have caught the DfT session from Fergus O’Dowd, on their connectivity tool, at this morning’s seminar. We will be keen to follow up on that, as it aligns with our aspirations around active travel.

It was also really good to see a transport session in the session on housing, as sometimes we can end up being a bit monocultural in how we try to divide up all things rural when really rural is all things.

Great event, my colleague and I are already planning an event to invite our two MPs. I took on board the comment – you must engage. Both our MPs are new – and we are planning a Rural Community Engagement event to involve residents and officers and hopefully our two MPs. They need facts and figures rather than emotions.

It’s good to know we have strength in our numbers. Well done RSN for bringing this together. Much appreciated.

Thanks to all for enlightening me in the issues faced by rural communities.

Thank you all - highly informative session - great expertise from speakers.

Another great event.  Many thanks to all the speakers for sharing their knowledge and experiences.

Thank you for a really interesting and thought-provoking session.

Thank you for a great conference. Great material.

Thank you for a really good week of presentations and discussion.

Another great session, and a brilliant conference. Thank you very much.

Very many thanks to all for a very interesting week.