Further Supplementary Memorandum submitted
by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
IMPLEMENTATION OF
THE RURAL
WHITE PAPER
Since publishing the Rural White Paper on 28
November 2000, we have taken decisive steps in delivering the
plans we set out to develop and maintain a living, working, protected
and vibrant countryside.
A great deal has been accomplished. We have
provided substantial extra funding to boost basic local services,
such as rural schools, policing, local post offices, childcare
and rural transport. To help local services we have extended mandatory
50 per cent rate relief to include sole village public houses,
petrol stations and village food shops. We are helping to rejuvenate
over 100 market towns by funding projects to stimulate thriving
rural economies. Plans to give more power to town and parish councils
were published for consultation earlier this month, as part of
our commitment to give rural communities a stronger voice. We
have just published the first draft maps for the new rights of
access for walkers. We also plan to hold the first meeting of
the Rural Affairs Forum for England shortly, bringing together
key stakeholders to advise government on the issues that are important
to people in the countryside and give their views on government
policies and proposals.
Our key achievements are listed at Annex A.
A detailed Implementation Plan and timetable
for the measures and initiatives in the Rural White Paper was
first published in March. It is regularly updated and is available
on the Internet at:
(www.defra.gov.uk/wildlife-countryside/ruralwp/rwpttable/index.htm).
We will be publishing a full progress report
and the next update of the Implementation Plan very soon.
In the meantime members of the Committee might
like to see the report published on 13 December which also covers
the Government response to the rural Task Force and Lord Haskins
Report.
19 December 2001
ANNEX A
KEY RURAL
WHITE PAPER
ACHIEVEMENTS
— increased funding for rural schools,
including the £80 million per year (2001-02 to 2003-04) Small
Schools Fund to help resource sharing, administrative support
and adoption of new technology;
— an additional £15 million in
2000-01 and £30 million in 2001-02 and 2002-03 to tackle
the extra cost of policing in rural areas; also launch of the
on-line Rural Crime Toolkit, drawing on examples of good practice
in rural policing;
— a new £2 million fund, now open
to applications, to support community-driven projects to refurbish
and improve rural sub-post offices—one part of the Government's
commitment to maintain a national post office network;
— help to establish 8,728 new childcare
places in the rural counties of Cornwall, Devon, Durham and Lincolnshire
in 2000-01;
— increased investment in wider Health
and Social Services which is expected to be of particular benefit
to people in rural areas—for example, the programme to establish
100 new primary care one-stop or mobile units, as well as 5,000
intermediate care beds, many in local facilities such as cottage
hospitals by 2004. The NHS Direct service, now running throughout
England, also offers a major benefit to people living in more
remote and rural areas;
— £62 million to improve rural
bus services in 2001-02, with a total of £239 million allocated
over the next three years for new and improved rural travel services;
— the Housing Corporation exceeded
their target of approving 800 affordable homes in rural settlements
last year by more than 200 (1003 approvals), and have increased
their target for this year to 1,100, rising to 1,600 by 2003-04;
— new Countryside Agency grant schemes
in operation: £15 million Community Service Grants fund to
help safeguard or re-establish basic village facilities; £15
million Parish Transport Fund for small-scale, locally generated
transport solutions; and £5 million Parish Plans Fund to
help around 1,000 communities prepare their own village or town
plans;
— new legislation, in force from August,
extending 50 per cent mandatory rate relief to village food shops
and new small-scale, non-agricultural enterprises on farms. This
is additional to extending 50 per cent relief to sole village
pubs and petrol stations in April;
— selection of over 100 towns to benefit
from a £100 million market towns regeneration programme,
to which the Government has allocated £37 million. Changes
have also been made to planning policy guidance on transport (PPG13)
to emphasise the role of market towns as hubs for jobs and services;
— changes made to planning policy guidance
on the countryside (PPG7) giving stronger support to farm diversification
and clarifying guidance on best and most versatile (BMV) land;
— publication of a consultation paper
on Quality Parish and Town Councils, seeking views on plans to
give councils an enhanced role for their communities; and
— publication of the Countryside Agency's
"Policy Maker's Checklist" in April, to assist Government
and its agencies "rural-proof" policies, now part of
the Cabinet Office's rapid policy makers' checklist.
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