Time for a Rural Strategy
On Friday an event, hosted by Lord Cameron, was held in Taunton to mark the 20th anniversary of the last Rural White Paper and call for a new Rural Strategy. The conference, which was covered by PoliticsHome.com, examined a range of issues including: community and governance, connectivity and access, services and the role of the […]
Council warns of £1bn social care black hole
Following the announcement that councils will be allowed to raise taxes by 2.99 per cent in 2019/2020, town hall leaders warned of a £1 billion social care funding gap, as reported by the Independent. There are now a combined total of almost 5,000 requests for adult social care per day, using up nearly 40 per […]
Rural England – A different place demands a different strategy
As we approach the 20th anniversary of the last Rural White Paper a wide range of rural advocates from across the country will consider how a new Rural Strategy can deliver for rural communities in England. In England today the challenges facing rural areas often leave residents and communities feeling isolated and largely overlooked by a political system that […]
Ambulance wait times longer in rural areas
The BBC is allowing people to find out the average ambulance response times in their area, after it emerged that some rural communities have to wait more than 20 minutes for help to arrive. A response time should be between six and eight minutes and delays can reduce a patient’s chance of survival. In urban […]
Knife crime rising fastest in rural areas
The Guardian reports on 10th March about how Knife crime is rising at a much steeper rate in the home counties and rural provinces than in London according to police figures. Guardian analysis of official statistics shows a 45.7% average increase in knife-related offences in 34 English and Welsh counties since 2010, compared with an 11% rise in […]
Access to cash remains in serious jeopardy
Access to Cash Review welcome but free-to-access cash remains in serious jeopardy NoteMachine has today welcomed Natalie Ceeney’s Access to Cash report as critical to the debate on the future of cash and consumers’ access to financial services in the UK more broadly. However, it fails to address the short-to-medium situation: LINK’s current pricing structure […]
Changes to rural school transport
Parents in North Yorkshire, England’s largest county, risk losing their entitlement to free door-to-door school transport from September, according to the Yorkshire Post. The county currently spends £24.1 million per year – more than a third of its education budget – on transporting pupils to and from school. The cost has increased in recent years […]
Rural Economy Spotlight – March 2019
A quarterly bulletin facilitated by your membership of the Rural Services Network highlighting a selection of current rural economic development news, issues and opportunities Sign up to the call for a Rural Strategy The Rural Services Network believes that the government should take the lead and work with interested organisations to produce a comprehensive long […]
RSP Member – AF Affinity Limited
AF Affinity Limited is a wholly owned subsidiary of The AF Group, a farmer-owned UK agricultural cooperative with an annual turnover of over £260million. Utilising the buying power of AF, Affinity caters for both the B2B and B2C market by saving them money on a wide variety of goods and services including heating and vehicle […]
