Conservatives Launch Rural Action
7 July 2009
The Conservative Party is today launching an agenda for rural communities – Rural Action – together with new analysis revealing that almost 400 rural schools have closed since Labour came to power.
Shadow Environment Secretary, Nick Herbert, and Shadow Agriculture and Rural Affairs Minister, Jim Paice, are launching the Rural Action campaign on the first day of the Royal Show in Warwickshire.
Rural Action has four key aims:
Respect rural people
Power to rural communities
Protect rural services
Revive the rural economy
Under the plans, rural communities would be given the power to resist school closures, and could choose to start new village schools. Villages would be given the right to build their own affordable homes. The Rural Action policy paper also sets out how a Conservative Government would scrap top-down housing targets and allow councils to oppose development planned for green belt land.
To help improve access to public services, Conservatives will pilot new rural transport solutions. To revive the rural economy, Conservatives will cut tax rates for small businesses to encourage growth and protect jobs, allow councils to offer rural business rate discounts and simplify the planning system to improve accountability.
Speaking at the Royal Show, Nick Herbert said:
“Rural England has suffered a decade of disrespect by Labour. Local services have been withdrawn, rural communities have been denied a voice, and power has been taken away from local people.
“We need a new approach to reverse the trend of centralisation and end the thoughtless dictat from Whitehall, so that rural communities and the rural way of life are respected. We will return power and decision-making to individuals and communities, so that people have a genuine say over the matters that affect them locally. And we will unlock the potential of the rural economy to deliver jobs from sustainable businesses of the future.
“Rural communities are crying out to be heard. They should no longer be ignored.”
Jim Paice, Shadow Agriculture and Rural Affairs Minister, added:
“Over the past decade the Government has shown itself to be deaf to the concerns of the countryside. Conservative Rural Action is about ensuring that the rural voice is heard and that the agenda to empower rural communities, protect rural services and revive the rural economy is advanced.”