Scottish Rural Communities Policy Review: stage 2 - England case study

3. The national rural legislative, policy and support infrastructure

England has had no explicit rural policy for many years, with successive governments resisting calls for a rural strategy (House of Lords, 2019). In 2000, a Rural White Paper (Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions [DETR] and Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food [MAFF], 2000) promised to improve rural services, transport, the rural economy, the countryside, rural towns and villages, and the way the government handled rural policy, but this never came to fruition. Instead, governments pursued ‘mainstreaming’ as their approach. The objective of mainstreaming is to ensure that people in rural England have access to the same policies and programmes as in urban England. However, the OECD (2011) found that “this has proved challenging to implement” for various reasons including an ineffective governance structure, ineffective rural proofing, and inadequate policies to address rural housing needs and productivity.

Despite this, rural England has had a support infrastructure for many years, and it is important to understand recent changes in this infrastructure in the context of evolution over a long period of time. From 1909 to 1999, the Development Commission provided support for rural industry and rural community development, initially to increase the amenities of village life, to retain and reskill the younger population and to promote social cohesion (Rogers 1999). Together with the Carnegie UK Trust, it fostered and funded a network of Rural Community Councils (RCCs), village halls, and Women’s Institutes, which eventually covered all of rural England (Curry, 2021), still effectively constituting a ‘national rural network’.

The initial aims of the Rural Community Councils were (officially) to coordinate voluntary effort for social services in rural areas, with an emphasis on promoting volunteering, active citizenship, social cooperation, and adult education; and (unofficially) to develop self-government at the village level, to democratise power and break the hold of landowners and the church over rural society (Curry, 2021). The Rural Community Councils’ activities addressed what were then perceived to be the four main elements of ‘the ‘rural problem’: rural industry (as agriculture shed labour); lack of leisure opportunities for young people, leading to depopulation; the social organisation of rural areas; and a need for rural adult education. The construction of village halls addressed the last three of these issues. Their activities, staffing and ways of working evolved over the years with the changing context (see Curry 2021 for more details). The movement continued to be funded predominantly from the (Rural) Development Commission until its abolition in 1999.

Today, the ACRE Network consists of ACRE (Action with Communities in Rural England) itself and 38 independent Rural Community Councils, covering all the ‘shire counties’ of England. ACRE is a national charity speaking up for and supporting rural communities. Its vision is of rural communities that are thriving, inclusive, economically active and which have the services needed to ensure equity for all residents. It works with ACRE Network members (Rural Community Councils) and other stakeholders to evidence and address need, and to inform and to influence at a national level, speaking on behalf of rural communities across England with a particular focus on disadvantage. ACRE’s Board of voluntary directors is elected, some representing Rural Community Councils and others independent. There is a small team of staff. The activities of Rural Community Councils are discussed below. ACRE advocates energetically on behalf of rural communities (notably through the Rural Coalition) and acts as a critical friend to the UK Government’s Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).The most rural local authorities in England also work together as a special interest group, the Rural Services Network.

There was also a top-down English National Rural Network (NRN) from 2008-2020, run at first by the Commission for Rural Communities (CRC) until that was abolished by the UK Coalition Government, and then run by Defra in house. However, while the Network appears not to have been evaluated, it seemingly had little impact and is infrequently mentioned^[3].