The RSN believes that the Government should take the lead and work with interested organisations to produce a comprehensive long term and funded Rural Strategy.  

We have developed a Template Rural Strategy which sets out the rational for calling for such a strategy.  We believe that it should include the following component parts and the Template Rural Strategy sets out evidence to support their inclusion:

• A Thriving Rural Economy
• A Digitally connected countryside
• A Place everyone can get around
• An Affordable Place to live
• A fair deal on health and social care
• A Place to learn and grow
• A settlement (including fair funding for rural services) to support local action
• A rural proofed policy framework

We call on Government to produce a Rural Strategy to set out their priorities for Englands Rural Communities and the Rural Economy for the future and we ask you to support this call.

The following individuals and organisations also support this call (to follow):

Documents:

→ Download our 'Time for a Rural Strategy' Report here (463KB)
     - Hi resolution version can be downloaded here (15MB)

→ Download the 'Time for a Rural Strategy -  Key Messages' document here