Rural Affairs

Department Strategic Objective: Strong Rural Communities Background Information

The Government’s aim is that everyone should be able to live in a vibrant and sustainable community.  Strong communities are places where people want to live and work, now and in the future. They meet the diverse needs of existing and future residents, are sensitive to their environment and contribute to a high quality of life. They are safe and inclusive, well planned, built and run, and offer equality of opportunity for all.

A strong rural community is created by the people who live in it and is reinforced by its diversity and the extent to which all members of it share a sense of place.  The Government has a part to play in ensuring that people in such communities have:

  • decent homes at prices people can afford;
  • good education opportunities;
  • good health outcomes;
  • access to employment and business opportunities;
  • a safe environment;
  • the ability to have a say in the way their community is run
  • support to address those impacts of macroeconomic change, that no individual community can be expected to address in isolation.

The public service needs of people living in rural areas are addressed by the same parts of the public sector that work for all of us.  Our objective is not different or better outcomes for people living in rural areas than those enjoyed by people living elsewhere.  It is equity and fairness for people where ever they live.

Some challenges posed by geography and demography create the need for a small additional investment in time, money and effort by the Government into directly helping rural communities to achieve and maintain strength.  Rural communities and businesses expect Defra to ensure that Government doesn’t overlook problems associated with more remote or widely dispersed communities.

Intermediate Outcomes

1. The evidenced needs of rural people and communities are addressed through mainstream public policy and delivery

2. Economic growth is supported in rural areas with the lowest levels of performance

13 June 2008

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs