The Government needs to change its rhetoric on rural communities
The Government has once again set itself on a collision course with the countryside. The overwhelming sentiment towards rural concerns seems to be that they are a nuisance getting in the way of much needed economic development.
That could not be further from the truth. Economic growth that is sympathetic to the countryside will be welcomed with open arms by rural communities that have been overlooked for decades.
People living in the countryside have arguably suffered the most from dwindling services and a lack of investment in housing and transport infrastructure.
But opposition to developments should not be swept aside as ‘nimbyism’ and developments should not be railroaded through against the will of local people. Their reservations are legitimate.
Understandably the Country Land and Business Association (CLA) has written to the Chancellor Rachel Reeves to tell her that “landowners are not the blockers” and to stop blaming farmers and landowners for slowing large infrastructure projects.
The Government does find itself in an invidious position. Britain needs to bolster its energy security while meeting net zero targets. The Government needs to get the economy moving in the right direction. And there is much needed, especially in this region, for investment in transport infrastructure.
However, it has to work with communities and not against them. Its rhetoric towards farmers and rural communities is another example of the Government alienating the countryside. The ill-conceived attempts to change inheritance tax rules that would have decimated family farms and unexpected closure of the previous sustainable farming incentive scheme had already damaged trust in the Government.
Everyday it looks more and more as if Labour has made a cynical calculation that electoral support for it lies in urban conurbations and therefore rural concerns do not matter.