Rural Affairs

Chapter 3: Vital village services

The issues

  • Around a third of all villages have no shop and the loss of banks, garages and pubs in rural areas has continued. To remain viable, village enterprise needs to exploit new technology, offer a wider range of services and share facilities.

  • People in villages increasingly rely on travelling to meet their everyday needs. Loss of services can threaten the viability of communities and affects some severely - particularly the low paid and unemployed, young people and the elderly.

The future - what we want to see

  • Diversified, village community-backed enterprise offering a wide range of products and services, using new technology and good business skills.

  • Public service providers retaining and improving essential village services which are well-used and at the heart of the community. Using new technology, post offices will offer local access to banking and a wide range of services.

  • Community initiative to share use of village facilities, such as the church, school, hall or pub, and to re-establish basic services.

Summary of measures

  • Extension of mandatory rate relief for village shops, pubs and garages which offer community benefit - subject to consultation;

  • Reduced rate of VAT on repairs and maintenance for listed churches - subject to EC approval;

  • A new £15m Community Service Fund to help safeguard or re-establish community backed basic services in small settlements;

  • Maintaining the Post Office network;

  • New services available at village post offices including banking;

  • Further safeguards against the closure of village schools;

  • Increased funding for rural schools and access to internet for all rural schools by 2002;

  • New childcare and early education provision in rural communities.

Contents

3.1. Introduction

3.2. Supporting basic local services

3.3. Maintaining and modernising the rural post office network

3.4. Supporting local schools

3.5. Better access to childcare and early education

3.1. Introduction

We want villages to be active, living communities, where people are also able to meet their essential needs and with opportunities for both old and young.

3.2. Supporting basic local services

3.2.1. The most basic community service for most rural communities is the local shop (often combined with a post office). We want to support the retention of shops in small settlements, offering a wider range of products and services - and combining with post offices, garages, pubs and other facilities.

"There's too much temptation to get in the car and go to Sainsbury's or Somerfields"

"We'll use it every now and again. It's good for when we run out and we think it's not worth going into town and you don't mind the price you pay down at the shop"

Trends in village services

  • The decline in village shops was steady in the 1970s but has slowed since then - the number of parishes with a permanent shop (of any kind) fell by 1% to 58% between 1991 and 1997.

  • On average 77 schools closed a year in the 1970s; between 1983 and 1997 around 30 schools a year were closing. Last year the number was 2.

  • A NFWI survey in 1999 showed the number of villages with a post office had declined from 85% to 75% since 1950. But much of the decline was in the last 10 years.

"Use it or lose it applies, it's only at the last minute when it was closing up the whole village seems to be able to get together and do something about keeping it open"

Case study - revived village shop
The revival of the shop in the village of Harting, Hampshire was a partnership arrangement between the Harting village shop association and the shopkeeper who pays a rent for shop and living accommodation. The shop has gone from strength to strength providing services such as fresh on-site baking, specialist foods and local produce.
Village shops

3.2.2. That means encouraging new and co-operative ways of providing the services people want, and removing any constraints which stand in the way of community action to address these needs. It also means reviewing the financial support that is available, and ensuring that it is effective. The village shop rate relief scheme offers mandatory 50% rate relief to sole shops and post offices in settlements under 3,000 in designated rural areas with a rateable value of less than £6,000. Local authorities can also give support to a wider range of rural businesses in small settlements. We propose to extend that support:

  • We are consulting in our Green Paper Modernising Local Government Finance on an expansion of the village shop rate relief scheme. This would offer mandatory rate relief to 2nd or 3rd food shops;

  • We are enabling the Countryside Agency to expand their support for village shops to help retailers become more viable.

Village retail partnership

Large retailers can play a vital role in sustaining village services either through trading partnerships with small shops, business support or by making goods available via remote ordering on internet links at community service points. Sainsbury's SAVE scheme which allows village stores to stock selected own brand produce, is being expanded - to 200 stores by end 2000. Somerfields Village Link offers free delivery of groceries and fresh produce to village stores - initially within 10 minutes of a Somerfield main store - but this will be expanded later. Other larger retailers are helping by seconding an experienced manager to work with small rural enterprises sharing business expertise and acting as a mentor.

See progress towards this commitment in the Rural White Paper Implementation Plan

Pubs, garages and other rural businesses

3.2.3. It is not just shops which provide a vital community role in small settlements - pubs, garages and other businesses can all play a valuable role, by providing a range of other services alongside their main business such as cashback facilities, internet access or acting as a collection or ordering point for more distant businesses.

  • We are consulting in our Green Paper Modernising Local Government Finance on extending rate relief to pubs and garages which offer community facilities. We have proposed that mandatory 50% rate relief would be given in settlements of less than 3,000 population in designated rural areas to:

    • any singly owned pub which is the sole remaining retail outlet in the village or is the sole pub and provides a defined community facility or service (eg cash machine, cashback facility, meeting room for local community or public information and communication technology access point) and which has a rateable value of less than £6,000.

    • singly owned garages offering community benefits such as a cash machine or cashback facility in a village where there is no post office and with a rateable value of less than £6,000. Small garages in rural areas offer a wide range of other benefits to the community, and in the light of our consultation, we will look at whether all singly owned garages in this category should get relief.

Community service points - village internet access

We will promote the concept of ‘community service points', offering ICT access at local level in rural areas. Different organisations, from the Post Office to schools and parish councils, will help deliver a comprehensive network of outlets offering internet access - rural local authorities will have a particular interest in delivering local internet access and many are already establishing networks. An example is: Linnet Local, set up by Lincolnshire Libraries Authority with other partners and funders, has put computer-based library facilities in pubs, post offices, village shops, village halls, church halls, doctors' surgeries, a hospital and an opticians. Each Linnet Local is a fully functional PC with internet access to training, community and other information.

See progress towards this commitment in the Rural White Paper Implementation Plan

3.2.4. Joint use of a wide range of premises - from the village hall to the pub - can help deliver community facilities at village level. The role of the churches - often the last remaining public building in many rural communities - has been highlighted under the £7.5m initiative ‘Rural Churches in Community Service' which has received a £2.5m lottery grant and which aims to complete 100 projects by the end of the year, providing new facilities in churches of different denominations for activities such as:

  • Mother and Toddler groups
  • Playgroups
  • After school and holiday clubs
  • Youth drop-ins
  • Drop-ins for older people
  • Luncheon clubs
  • Day care centres (for frail older people)
  • Employment and training advice
  • Training
  • School use for curriculum studies, music, performance, PE
  • Library services
  • Alcoholics Anonymous groups

There are 9,000 parish churches in rural areas which are listed buildings for which the repair costs are largely borne by the congregation

  • We are acting to support the community role of churches in rural areas. In the Pre-Budget Report 2000, we have announced that we will seek European Commission agreement to our proposal to reduce the rate of VAT (from 17 1 /2 % to 5%) payable for repairs and maintenance on listed buildings which are also places of worship.

See progress towards this commitment in the Rural White Paper Implementation Plan

Community operated services

3.2.5. Communities have often taken the lead in safeguarding or re-establishing basic services in villages and small settlements - community based shops, social facilities, basic banking. We want to encourage and support this.

  • We will establish a new Community Service Fund of £15m over three years, operated by the Countryside Agency, to help communities sustain or re-establish basic village services. This will be open to a wide range of organisations including parish councils, churches and community groups.

See progress towards this commitment in the Rural White Paper Implementation Plan

3.3. Maintaining and modernising the rural post office network

3.3.1. Post offices are the most visible, and often the only, commercial outlets in many rural communities. 99% of people in rural areas live within three miles of a post office. But the network has been slowly declining, and changes will occur in some areas of existing post office work, such as from the switch to bank credit transfer of benefits payments and new means of delivering public services. We have, however, given a commitment that any pension or benefit recipient who wants to collect their payment in cash at a post office counter will continue to be able to do so, in full and weekly. We have also asked the Post Office to develop new business opportunities, and pledged to underpin the rural network and support its modernisation by firm commitments about its future, in close consultation with the National Federation of Subpostmasters. For example, the Post Office is piloting a scheme in 1,000 offices in the south west in which customers can nominate their local office as a collection point for parcels, packages and items needing a signature.

"They're closing the banks slowly. ... But then the post office is tending to take a lot on. And while the post office is available in these little rural areas - I think that's very important again, that there is a post office."

  • We have accepted all 24 of the recommendations in the Performance and Innovation Unit (PIU) report Counter Revolution: Modernising the Post Office Network;

  • Ring-fenced funding was set aside in the Spending Review for new investment of £270m over the next three years to start the implementation of the PIU recommendations for maintaining, modernising and improving the post office network in both urban and rural areas. We have also made clear that we are prepared to add significantly to this investment over the next few years, subject to satisfactory business plans and pilot trials.

  • We are placing a formal requirement on the Post Office to maintain the rural network, and to prevent any avoidable closures of rural post offices. In the first instance this requirement will apply up to 2006;

  • The Postal Services Commission will monitor and report annually to Government on the shape of the rural network, the services offered and whether these meet the needs of rural communities.

See progress towards this commitment in the Rural White Paper Implementation Plan

New business for the Post Office

3.3.2. To allow post offices to develop new business we have acted to ensure that by April 2001 all rural post offices will have networked IT capabilities. This will allow them to introduce a wide range of new or improved services, including banking and financial services. Access to other services can be greatly improved if a broader range of transactions can be delivered through post offices.

  • We have enabled the Post Office to pilot programmes from Spring 2001 to develop post offices as one stop shops for access to a wide range of central and local government services and related voluntary sector activities and as Internet learning and access points (see box). People should be able to rely on their local post office as a major source of information and independent advice for a vast range of needs - including access to electronic government services for those without internet access. The England pilot will operate at 283 post offices throughout the county of Leicestershire.

New business for the Post Office

The pilot will give older people, families and children a specially tailored information and transactions service in their local post offices, not only by face to face access across the counter, but also using internet kiosks, web phones, telephone links, help-lines and surgeries. These will provide new health services, and general community and educational information. There will be a package of training for sub-postmasters. Depending on the results of the pilot, we will consider the case for full roll-out which could offer a comprehensive range of other services such as:

  • Application for education courses and grants;
  • Ordering a library card and books;
  • Business services such as notifying job vacancies to the Employment Service, and tax, employee and VAT returns;
  • Notification of property crimes and payment of parking and court fines;
  • Community consultation and voter registration;
  • Registration of births, marriages and deaths;
  • Application for travel passes, stakeholder pension and other services for older people.

"They've just given us a cashpoint, which is a life-saver, we didn't have one, and then we've had one now for like about the last 8 months."

See progress towards this commitment in the Rural White Paper Implementation Plan

Post offices and banking

3.3.3. Banking and other financial services are a key area of development for the Post Office, using the investment in the new computer network as a platform for ‘universal banking' and other banking services. Telephone and internet banking and cashpoints can substitute for some services but many people still want to carry out their banking person to person. There are more rural post offices than rural branches of all the banks combined, so post offices are well placed to provide banking services; access to banking in rural areas is improving as more banks turn to the post office to provide their customers with convenient access. The Post Office are developing plans, in discussion with the banks and government, to reduce financial exclusion and to extend access to banking services to those currently without bank accounts, either through a Post Office-based simple banking facility or new basic accounts introduced by the banks and accessible at post offices. The Government is strongly supporting the Post Office in this work and has made clear that it is prepared to provide funding for ‘universal banking' on the basis of a robust business case. The Post Office's IT capability will, in addition, allow it to extend its existing network banking arrangements with Lloyds TSB, Barclays, Alliance & Leicester Girobank and the Co-operative Bank to others.

See progress towards this commitment in the Rural White Paper Implementation Plan

3.4. Supporting local schools

"I think that's where a strong sense of community is in there, and if you've got children going through the school system then it's a focus for parents - and you meet a lot of parents that way, you get to know a lot of people."

3.4.1. Local schools are at the heart of many rural communities, and a school closure in a rural area can have effects well beyond the schooling of the community's children. This is why we have included in our statutory guidance to local School Organisation Committees and Adjudicators a presumption against closure of rural schools. We have thereby dramatically reduced the closure of village schools. Between 1983 and 1997 around 30 schools a year were closing. Last year the number was two.

Action to support village schools

3.4.2. But that on its own would not be enough. We are determined to ensure that rural schools not only survive but are able to continue to produce high quality education. We are therefore taking action to ensure their long term viability. This includes:

  • From September 2000 we have introduced further safeguards against the closure of a site of a multi-sited school. Where sites are a mile or more apart they will be afforded the same level of protection as a single sited school. Where necessary this should give very small schools the confidence to be able to co-operate in order to increase their effectiveness and long term viability;

  • £80m is being made available between 1999- 2001 under the Administrative Support Fund for Small Schools to reduce the burden of basic administration placed on teachers, deputies and heads in those schools;

  • Additional funding of £20m is available over 2000-2001 to encourage small schools to pilot innovative ways of working collaboratively with others to overcome difficulties due to small size; more money will be available under a new merged fund from April 2001;

  • The extra money for schools announced in the last Budget will give an extra grant of £3,000 for every primary school with less than 100 pupils this year and £6,000 from April 2001;

  • And we need to create a fairer financial regime for schools. The Green Paper ‘Modernising Local Government Finance' included proposals for reforming education funding.

Case study - federated schools
The primary schools of Ebrington and St James in Gloucestershire were federated in 1981. It is an example of a successful federation of two schools of different characters. Both schools serve the full age range, but one is in a village with just three classes and the other is in a town with five classes.

See progress towards this commitment in the Rural White Paper Implementation Plan

3.4.3. Information and communications technology has a vital role in extending access to learning and teaching opportunities, opens up a whole range of possibilities, including: access to study support and discussion groups for teachers and pupils who, for reasons of distance, cannot otherwise link into training or after school hours activities; availability of school ICT facilities for use by the community; and opportunities for fully interactive distance learning, which the roll out of broadband technologies to rural schools will bring.

  • We will connect all schools to the National Grid for Learning by 2002.

See progress towards this commitment in the Rural White Paper Implementation Plan

Shared and community use of school facilities

3.4.4. This can enlarge opportunity for the whole community through providing facilities not otherwise available including: sports facilities, after school clubs, neighbourhood learning centres, libraries, play schools and nurseries and lunch clubs for pensioners. Schemes of this kind can make a big contribution in many locations and help people from all backgrounds. They may be particularly helpful to children from poorer backgrounds who are disproportionately affected by travel problems in rural areas. They are more likely to be dependent on the school bus for travel to and from school, and therefore find it difficult to participate in both formal and informal after-school activities. Those who are most likely to benefit from homework clubs, access to computers and leisure activities are least likely to be able to take part unless the service is provided close to their homes.

"And what I found when I was at school at Sherborne was the schools were excellent, but so much of it required you to stay after school, and I couldn't get home because there was no bus back, and so I could never participate in any of those things."

  • To encourage more LEAs and schools to become involved in community use of schools, we have published guidance Raising Standards, Opening Doors. This sets out the many advantages in opening up schools for wider use, and also shows how some of the potential practical difficulties can be overcome. We have provided funding of £20m over four years for innovative community based projects from the Adult and Community Learning Fund.

Case study - community use of schools
Examples include:

South Northamptonshire Adult Education - provides basic and study support skills training for disadvantaged parents through five village schools.
Barrow Primary School in Lancashire provides activities for pupils until 5.30pm and then from 6 to 9pm, any pupil or ex-pupil (up to age 18) can come to the school and use the computer or library to do homework or play games. Some parents also attend.

See progress towards this commitment in the Rural White Paper Implementation Plan

3.5. Better access to childcare and early education

3.5.1. Access to convenient childcare is essential for families with young children. Not only does this offer children the opportunity to interact with others and prepares them for school, but it also gives those looking after children, usually women, the opportunity to take up employment, training or educational activities which can be of long term benefit to the whole family, and indeed to the community as a whole.

The National Childcare Strategy

3.5.2. The National Childcare Strategy aims to provide good quality affordable accessible childcare in every community across the country. £470m, including £170m raised from the National Lottery and distributed through the New Opportunities Fund, was allocated to support childcare provision in 1999-03. On 9 October 2000, we announced a threefold increase in the annual investment in childcare from £66m in 2000-01 to over £200m by 2003-04. In 1999-00 Early Years Development and Childcare Partnerships reported the creation of 140,000 new childcare places [1].

These included 1,246 new places created in Cornwall, 1,276 in Durham, 992 in Lincolnshire and 2,271 in Devon.

Case studies - childcare
Projects funded in rural areas include:

Suffolk ACRE Ltd, awarded £25,000 to create 28 before school places, 28 after school places and 28 holiday childcare places for children aged three to five years in two rural communities.

Northumberland Out of School Initiative, awarded £329,000 to provide an additional 1,176 before and after school and holiday places in 16 locations throughout the county suitable for children up to 13 years. The project will benefit children living in isolated rural areas and those with special needs.

  • The target for 2000-01 is 128,000 new childcare places. To help overcome difficulties in rural areas, the Countryside Agency and DfEE have launched the Rural Children and Young People's Forum which will help shape policy and practice on childcare to meet rural circumstances.

See progress towards this commitment in the Rural White Paper Implementation Plan

Early education

3.5.3. Rural areas will benefit from our commitment to provide all four year olds with an early education place if their parent wishes, while provision for three year olds is being expanded with co-ordination between maintained, private and voluntary sectors through Early Years Development and Childcare Partnerships, aiming for an option of a place for all by 2004. The pilot Early Excellence Centres are providing models of good practice in integrated approaches to high quality early education, childcare, and family support. They include schemes in rural areas.

Case study - Early Excellence Centre (EEC)
The ACE (Activities, Childcare and Education) Centre in Chipping Norton offers services including a nursery school, day nursery, family centre, after school club, holiday playscheme, adult education, outreach programme, IT resource centre and private classes and clubs. The outreach worker is supporting pre-schools locally (which are often very small, informal, dependent on volunteers and unable to access statutory support and training) with support, training, and access to the ACE Centre's high quality outdoor play area. Early evidence on the impact of EEC shows that such outreach work is having a positive effect in helping to improve the quality of early years services, particularly in the private and voluntary sectors.

"Yetminster's a very sought after village because it's a hub village for the others around it. We've got the school, we've got the surgery, there's the stores, the hairdresser, the butcher, grocer. We've got the stop-me rail - you literally put your hand out and the train stops for you."

1: These have provided childcare for more than 244,000 children and, taking into account turnover, have added more than 74,000 to the stock of childcare places across England.

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Page last modified: 19 May, 2005
Page published: 28 November, 2000

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs