William Worsley: Year of decisions could change the rural landscape

The core of the countryside is, of course, farming. But farming is not just about food production. It is also about managing the environment.

Landscape and wildlife depend on the way in which the land is farmed and because farming and the environment are so closely intertwined, we need policies in place that recognise this connection and promote farming and food production, and the environment.

The issue with the potential to have the single biggest impact in the coming year is the reform of the Common Agricultural Policy, and the debate on this reform will begin in earnest in 2011. We need a policy that will promote and protect our ability, over the long term, to produce sufficient food. Our planet has many more mouths to feed, with far higher expectations of quality food, than ever before. The world's population is expected to increase by up to 50 per cent to between eight billion and 10.5 billion by 2050.

However, the needed increase in food production must not be at the expense of the environment. We may need to find new ways of farming, and also create incentives for farmers to provide more positive land management. Natural resources such as water and soil need to be protected and the quality of the natural environment improved.

Most of these issues are dealt with at EU, not national, level and fortunately, it looks like the Commission is thinking along the right lines. It is essential our own Government recognises the importance of engaging with the mainstream debate and arguing for sufficient funding to pay for what is needed.

Of course, the countryside is not just about farming. It hosts a whole range of small businesses and most farmers now do far more than just farm. We, therefore, need an administrative structure in place to promote the interests of rural enterprise in its entirety. 2011 is set to see the shift from regional government in favour of a more decentralised localism agenda, a principle feature of which will be abolition of Regional Development Agencies (RDAs), such as Yorkshire Forward, and replacing them with Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs).

If an LEP covers any rural area to any significant extent, there must be overt and adequate means for rural concerns to be represented. The board of every RDA included at least one board member appointed to represent the concerns of rural business.

As CLA president, I spend much of my time travelling up and down the country talking to rural business people. The issue that comes up more often than any other is their frustration with the planning system: the delays, the excessively restrictive policies and absurd number of often costly conditions attached if permission is granted.

The planning system needs to be reformed so we have a positive, flexible, transparent and efficient system that recognises the need to work with rural communities and accepts the demands of changes in land use.

Finally, most rural businesses are now in competition with their urban counterparts. As I know from my experience in North Yorkshire, it is vital for any rural business to have access to satisfactory broadband and mobile phone coverage.

Paying for broadband will be expensive, but there are a number of steps the Government can take. It should legislate to introduce a Universal Service Obligation requiring broadband service providers to provide speeds of two megabytes per second to every door by 2015, with the capacity to increase in due course.

Similarly, Ofcom and mobile phone service operators need to do far more to ensure full coverage in rural areas. The Government should also implement a framework for "piggy-backing" to allow private businesses in rural areas to take advantage of unused public sector broadband widths.

There may be a number of "big asks" here, but if 2011 proves to be the year in which the Government reforms the CAP, local government, the planning system and Britain's telecommunications infrastructure – and gets each of these right – the rural economy will be in a more secure position for the rest of the decade.

Wiliam Worsley, from hovingham, is president of the Country Land & Business Association.