Rural Affairs

Overview

Sustainable Countryside

The Government first set out a vision of a living, working, protected and vibrant countryside in the Rural White Paper in 2000. This vision - of sustainable rural communities in which economic, social and environmental issues are all taken into account - remains at the heart of rural policy.

Much has been achieved since the White Paper, and many lessons learnt. Events and experience have provided new insights into the challenges facing rural areas. In particular, improvements in the evidence base for rural policy have highlighted the many economic and social disparities in rural areas. There is no homogenous ‘Rural England’.

To meet the challenges we need a new approach to policy and delivery - based on targeting the greatest needs and working in partnership at national, regional and local level. The public - our customers - must come first.

Rural Strategy 2004 sets out the Government’s new approach. It identifies three key priorities for rural policy, and explains our modernised delivery arrangements.

The Government’s three priorities for rural policy are:

  1. Economic and Social Regeneration - supporting enterprise across rural England, but targeting greater resources at areas of greatest need.
  2. Social Justice for All - tackling rural social exclusion wherever it occurs and providing fair access to services and opportunities for all rural people.
  3. Enhancing the Value of our Countryside - protecting the natural environment for this and future generations.

These priorities will inform the Government’s rural policy for the next three to five years and the modernised delivery arrangements that will drive progress forward. This Strategy sets out the specific action that will be taken.

Background to the Strategy

  1. The Government set out a vision of a living, working, protected and vibrant countryside in the Rural White Paper, published in November 2000. The White Paper was published at a time of rapid change for rural areas - change that was brought into sharp focus by the Foot and Mouth outbreak less than three months after the White Paper was published. Four years on, social and economic changes affecting rural communities continue apace.
  2. In the light of the lessons learnt from the Foot and Mouth outbreak and the creation of Defra in June 2001, the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs commissioned a number of actions to improve the focus and delivery of rural policy through:
  3. Considerable progress has been made with this work. The Government published a full review of the Rural White Paper in January 2004, alongside a report on Social and Economic Change and Diversity in Rural England - part of our ongoing research programme to develop the evidence base for rural policy. Lord Haskins completed his review of delivery in rural areas in 2003 and published his report Rural Delivery Review in November 2003. The Government made an initial response also in November 2003, agreeing Lord Haskins' analysis of our delivery structures as too confusing for customers, and too bureaucratic and centralised to meet our future challenges, and accepting the thrust of his recommendations. All of these documents are available on the Defra website at: www.defra.gov.uk/rural.
  4. Since the publication of the Rural White Paper in 2000, there have also been wider policy developments that are important in relation to rural policy and delivery. In particular, these include:
    • Decentralisation - Your Region, Your Choice: Revitalising the English Regions White Paper, Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM) 2002; and the Devolved Decision-Making Review report, published with the Budget 2004
    • Strategy for Sustainable Farming and Food, Defra 2002
    • Common Agricultural Policy reform agreed in the EU in 2003 and Single Payment Scheme announced in 2004
    • Sustainable Communities, Building for the Future, ODPM 2003
    • Energy White Paper - Our Energy Future - Creating a Low Carbon Economy, DTI/Defra 2003
    • Working with the Grain of Nature: A Biodiversity Strategy for England, Defra 2002
    • Taking it on - the Government's consultation on reviewing the National Sustainable Development Strategy, Defra 2004
  5. The overarching Government aim is that our rural policy should have as its outcome genuinely sustainable development. This means integrating and balancing environmental, social and economic considerations at every stage. It means providing "a better quality of life for everyone, now and for generations to come.including thriving economies and communities in rural areas and a countryside for all to enjoy" [Footnote]. It includes tackling social exclusion - ensuring that all sections of society and all localities participate in and benefit from sustainable development. So public policies, programmes and instruments - across national, regional and local government - must apply effectively and equitably in rural areas, with a focus on raising levels of social inclusion. In addition we must ensure that our economic and social strategies are consistent with our aim of protecting and enhancing our natural heritage for this and future generations.
  6. Working towards this aim requires both clarity of policy and effective delivery. At the start of this Parliament, the Prime Minister set out his four principles of public service reform, which underpin the Government's approach to improving delivery [Footnote]. These are:
    • national standards and a clear framework of accountability;
    • devolution and delegation to the front line;
    • more flexible arrangements for service delivery; and
    • expanding choice for the consumer.
  7. Applying these principles to the delivery of rural policy was a central and compelling message of Lord Haskins' review. This Strategy sets the framework for the Government's response.
  8. The Strategy is based on the arrangements that are currently in place in the English regions. But a further development of Government policy will offer people in the three northern regions (North East, North West, and Yorkshire and the Humber) the opportunity to vote on whether to have an elected regional assembly. Referendums are planned to be held later this year, although the earliest that elections could be held to the first assemblies would be in 2006. Other regions could have an opportunity to hold referendums later. An elected assembly would, subject to legislation, have wide-ranging powers to promote economic and social development and improve and protect the environment, within a sustainable development framework, and would become a key partner in delivering the Rural Strategy through its proposed responsibility for the Regional Development Agency (RDA), rural regeneration programmes and tourism. It would also have the role of preparing and implementing regional planning and housing strategies and would be able to influence training and skills initiatives in the region, including through representation on Learning and Skills Councils. The Government will publish its legislative proposals for elected regional assemblies in draft before the first referendums are held.

Evidence of change in rural England

  1. One of the weaknesses identified by Ministers soon after the creation of Defra, and confirmed by Lord Haskins, was a lack of evidence especially at local level to inform effective rural policy and delivery, and no generally accepted definition of 'rural' England.
  2. To address this, the Government commissioned detailed research and analysis, leading to a new and more sophisticated definition of 'rural' areas, which we are launching alongside this Strategy. The new definition, alongside developments in data collection (such as the increasing availability of postcoded datasets) will provide a tool to help analyse the social and economic characteristics of rural areas at a more local scale than has been possible before - and so to help pinpoint areas of greatest need. For example, the definition can be used to attach a 'data marker' to government statistics, so as to provide much better evidence of trends in relation to transport and housing, and a wide range of other services. Further details of the new definition are set out in Annex A but in summary, it:
    • extends the current Government 'land use' based definition of urban areas to include rural settlements of different sizes and kinds;
    • recognises the differences between rural areas and moves away from crude urban/rural splits given the increasing difficulty in drawing a sharp line between the two;
    • bases the description of 'rural' on factors that people generally recognise as important rural characteristics, for example the nature and distribution of towns, villages and dispersed settlements;
    • allows 'fine grain' analysis of localities within rural areas, for rural delivery and targeting purposes; and
    • provides a means of basing social and economic data from, for example, the Census, on the more enduring features of rurality - namely the settlement pattern.
  1. Defra is also building on the rural evidence base through its revitalised rural research programme - which includes setting up a new Rural Evidence Research Centre. The evidence available so far - set out in further detail in Annex B - reveals that rural areas are dynamic and that rural society is rapidly changing in ways that are reshaping communities and blurring urban/ rural distinctions. The main features include:
    • Photo of an owl sitting on a wooden 'public footpath' sign. Copyright R S P C Apopulation growth: net migration of 60,000 people per year into wholly or predominantly rural districts between 1991 and 2002;
    • an ageing population: the number of people aged 65 or over in wholly or predominantly rural districts increased by 161,000 (12%) between 1991 and 2002, whilst the number aged 16-29 decreased by 237,000 (18%);
    • relative prosperity especially in more accessible areas: higher income per head than the national average - but with a disadvantaged minority amidst prevailing affluence;
    • economic weaknesses, with associated social deprivation, in a minority of 'lagging' rural areas: characteristically in areas adjusting to a decline in mining, agriculture and fishing, and tending to be in more peripheral areas;
    • convergence between the urban and rural economies: though agriculture is still at the core of the rural economy and society, employment in agriculture has decreased by 30% (151,000) in the last 20 years; employees in rural businesses are now more likely to be in manufacturing (25%), tourism (9%) or retailing (7%), than in agriculture (6%);
    • increased mobility through the car: bringing benefits for many but reducing the customer base for public transport and thus creating difficulties for those without access to a car. Half a million (14%) rural households do not have a car and many people in households which do have a car do not have access to it when they need to travel; and
    • pressures on the countryside - especially through demand for housing and transport: rural areas remain a rich resource, valued by both residents and visitors for fine landscapes, biodiversity and open space; these contribute to enjoyment and general well-being as well as to education and health. The aim of sustainable development is to ensure that the enhancement of this resource is achieved for the benefit of all.
  2. Many of these features are part of trends with long historical roots, dating back to 1945 and before. The causes include technological development, restructuring in the global and national economy, and the social, environmental and cultural changes that have resulted. Assuming these underlying drivers of change continue to operate, we can expect the future to bring:
    • further convergence between urban and rural lifestyles and economic activity in most rural communities, but with a minority of areas continuing to lag behind economically;
    • continuing population growth as a result of migration by (mostly) affluent and older people into accessible rural areas, combined with increased life expectancy;
    • continuing ageing of the population in rural areas, with consequential demands on public and community services that support the elderly; and in some areas difficulty in maintaining facilities for young people, such as schools;
    • greater demands for rural housing, much of it resulting from migration to the countryside and an increase in the number of one-person households;
    • continuing increases in the mobility of the majority as more people own a car, threatening a further reduction in local shops and other outlets and the increasing isolation of those who do not have a car;
    • a continued reduction in the proportional direct contribution of farming to total economic activity, but as farmers respond to the reform of the Common Agricultural Policy and the challenges of the Strategy for Sustainable Farming and Food, an increasingly important contribution to sustainable development through the provision of public benefits;
    • increasing demands on - and therefore an increasing need to take action to prevent damage to and improve the quality of - natural resources in the countryside (such as water resources) that support all communities, rural and urban; and
    • a greater premium on the contribution (including economic contribution) of the countryside to the quality of life, and therefore on the importance of linking improved land and resource management, including biodiversity, with providing access for all - for recreation, health and education, and the economic contribution.

Rural Strategy 2004

  1. Rural Strategy 2004 sets out the Government's policy response in the light of these trends. It takes as its starting point the vision of sustainable development for rural areas set out in the 2000 Rural White Paper, which remains the Government's vision. The Strategy also builds on the findings of the Review of the Rural White Paper published in January 2004, and in particular that:
    • three years of experience in delivery have demonstrated the need for new methodologies to be put in place to quantify targets and for new approaches to shared responsibility for meeting them, with clear accountabilities; and
    • the main challenges include: clarifying objectives, achieving greater prioritisation and targeting need; improving governance and delivery arrangements; and continuing to develop a solid evidence base and evaluation framework.
  2. The following three chapters set out the Government's policy objectives and how rural delivery will be modernised to achieve more effective results on the ground in relation to those objectives. Chapter 4 brings together the main elements of our modernisation of rural delivery into a short summary.
  3. Rural Strategy 2004 provides the policy framework, the tools and the evidence base to help all Government Departments, regional and local partners work together in a collaborative way over the next three to five years to deliver more sustainable rural communities and an enhanced and enriched countryside.

Page last modified: 19 May, 2005
Page published: 21 July, 2004

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs