Time for Government to unlock the economic potential of the countryside - The Yorkshire Post says

And yet while our countryside is home to spectacular vistas and inspiring people, the fact remains that successive Governments have utterly failed to recognise the powerful potential that it has to offer the country.

Today’s All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on the Rural Powerhouse outlines how measures to improve productivity in rural businesses could add £43bn to the UK economy.

Based on the credentialed evidence of more than 50 bodies it shows how planning, taxation, connectivity, skill levels, agricultural policy and a lack of ministerial direction is holding the rural economy back from providing this boost.

It documents how our planning system has failed those who live and work in rural areas, how a lack of skills provision is causing rapid ‘brain drain’ in rural areas and why the tax system disincentives business investment and diversification, among other areas.

The situation remains unacceptable and, with local authority elections due next week, the Government may soon be given an indication of just how important rural areas are. Polling highlighted how precarious a hold the Conservatives have on their traditional safe rural seats may be, with voter intention now 36 per cent in favour of Labour, with 38 per cent backing the Tories, a 7.5 per cent swing.

As the country recovers from the pandemic in every sense it must utilise every asset and avenue it has for economic success. As York Outer MP Julian Sturdy puts it, the current situation means the need to grow and strengthen the rural economy is more, not less important.

And in doing so the British countryside can have the sustainable future it so desperately needs.