Rural Fair Funding
Amid reduced public spending, fair resource allocation across regions is crucial. Despite a population larger than Greater London, rural areas receive significantly less funding for essential services, even though delivering these services in rural locales is costlier.
10 Nov 2025
Patients To Benefit From Cutting-Edge NHS Care At Home
New digital technologies will enable more NHS patients to receive care from home, under a national rollout announced last week. Dozens of areas in England are introducing remote-monitoring tools through...
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03 Nov 2025
SEND Reforms Need To Address Home To School Transport Pressures
Local authorities are struggling to balance their legal duty to provide transport for eligible pupils and the duty to balance their budget, says the National Audit Office (NAO). The NAO’s...
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03 Nov 2025
Rural Community Businesses Hold The Key To Renewal But Remain Overlooked
New research from Plunkett UK reveals that rural community-owned businesses are already delivering social, economic and environmental benefits that align directly with government ambitions – yet they remain under-recognised and...
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29 Oct 2025
Rural Councils Must Not Lose Out In Funding Reform
Following reports in The Times that proposed changes to council funding allocations have been watered down after lobbying from London boroughs, the Rural Services Network (RSN) is urging government to...
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20 Oct 2025
Government Review to Deliver Fairer GP Funding
A six-month review of how GP funding is distributed across England has been launched to ensure that communities with the greatest health needs receive their fair share of NHS resources....
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20 Oct 2025
Free School Meals Data Failing To Reflect Real Disadvantage
A new report from the Education Policy Institute (EPI), funded by the Nuffield Foundation, warns that the current system for registering children for Free School Meals (FSM) is failing to...
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13 Oct 2025
RSN Joins Sector Call To Unfreeze Local Housing Allowance
The Rural Services Network (RSN) has joined more than 40 leading housing, homelessness, and anti-poverty organisations in signing a joint letter to the UK Government urging action to unfreeze Local...
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06 Oct 2025
Labour Party Conference – The View from Rural
7 hours… that’s how long it took our Chief Executive Kerry Booth to get to the Labour Party Conference last week on the train, from rural Devon to bustling Liverpool,...
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06 Oct 2025
Rural Futures, Exploring the Potential of the Countryside
A new pamphlet, Rural Futures: The British Countryside and its Potential, has been published by the Fabian Society and The Countryside Charity (CPRE). Launched during the recent Labour Party Conference,...
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06 Oct 2025
Online GP Appointment Requests Now Available Across England
All GP practices in England are now required to keep their online consultation tools open throughout core hours, from 8am to 6.30pm, Monday to Friday. The Department of Health and...
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