On Saturday it was great to visit the Royal Cornwall Show, always a highlight of the year. As ever it was good to catch up with so many rural businesses and organisations, along with many others who had come to spend some time seeing the best our rural economy offers over the busy three days.
This year the Secretary of State for the Environment attended
the show and apart from having the experience of seeing the many varied stalls
and activities, also took the time to meet with groups representing rural
businesses in order to better understand the challenges they face and how the
Government can support them.
At the same time, last week the Secretary of State produced
the new Government strategy – “Unleashing Rural Opportunity” in which she set
out four broad priorities that are key to rural communities being able to
thrive.
The first priority is connectivity, with the Government
pledging to continue to deliver gigabit broadband and mobile coverage in rural
areas and increase access to public transport. New measures announced include
providing £7 million to test new ways of bringing together satellite, wireless
and fixed line internet connectivity in remote areas across the UK. This will
help support farmers and tourism businesses in those areas to access
lightning-fast, reliable connectivity for the first time, and will help rural
businesses in trial areas to make the most of new technologies.
The next priority is growing the rural economy, supporting
rural areas so they can prosper, in line with the Prime Minister’s key
priorities for the country as a whole. The Government has announced new
measures to help rural areas prosper, including consulting on changes to
permitted development rights to support rural diversification. This will look
at whether there should be changes to the current rules in England, cutting red
tape to make the planning process more straightforward for farmers so they can
more easily improve their redundant agricultural buildings, helping to make
their businesses more productive.
The third priority is homes and energy. The Government will
facilitate the building of more homes for local people to buy where local
communities want them and we will provide secure and resilient energy supplies.
New measures announced for England include funding of £2.5 million for a
network of rural housing enablers to boost the supply of new affordable housing
by identifying development opportunities, supporting site owners and community
representatives to navigate the planning system, and engaging with local
communities to help shape developments. The Government is also providing local
authorities with new powers to manage the impact of holiday lets on local
communities—recognising their contribution to the tourism sector, something I
have long campaigned on. We will also consult on making it easier for farmers
to change their redundant agricultural buildings into family homes.
The final priority is communities. The Government will
improve access to high-quality health care and take further action to tackle
rural crime. New measures include the imminent publication of a dental plan for
England that will help improve provision in rural areas. We will also put in place
legislation this summer to increase fly-tipping and litter penalties, and
intend to ringfence those penalties to tackle this blight on the countryside.
We are also supporting the National Police Chiefs’ Council to establish a new
National Rural Crime Unit to support police forces across Great Britain in
their response to rural crimes. In addition to additional funding from the Home
Office, DEFRA will fund a post within the National Rural Crime Unit to tackle
fly-tipping across Great Britain.
This is all good news for the rural communities that cover
much of Cornwall, and I look forward to working with the Government to realise
these exciting plans for the future.
As always, if I can be of assistance on this matter or any
other, please get in touch with my office on 01726 829329 or email office@stevedouble.org.uk
