Red tape shackling rural firms, says watchdog

The Commission for Rural Communities today says many rural firms are struggling to obtain public money, secure planning permission or meet regulations owing to Government programmes and policies being "too often designed around majority urban characteristics and needs".

The watchdog warns it has found many examples of how planning regulations have frustrated rural businesses, with firms frequently being told their plans for expansion and investment are "inappropriate or unacceptable" by local planning officials, while similar plans for development in neighbouring areas are rubber stamped without any problems.

The commission's Agenda for Change report highlights the need for the UK's planning system to be altered to "support rather than frustrate" economic growth and argues sustainable economic growth should be one of the key issues considered by planners when making decisions.

It comes just weeks after the CRC said the recession had hit labour markets in the countryside worse than the outbreak of foot and mouth in 2001 but that rural communities were now seeing a faster rate of recovery than urban areas.

In Agenda for Change, the CRC highlights the "major contribution to the nation's economic recovery" made by rural England which it says is ready to play its part in the UK's drive to achieve full economic potential.

But local authorities must demonstrate commitment to community-led plans for planning decisions – as spelt out in the Coalition Government's Big Society agenda, it says.

And the authors warn that improvements to broadband and mobile access in rural England are essential if rural businesses are to realise their potential and contribute to national economic growth.

The CRC also recommends that rural support should be at the heart of the make up of any Local Enterprise Partnerships, the bodies which will replace regional development agencies like Yorkshire Forward

Dr Stuart Burgess, CRC chairman, said: "More of the potential of our local rural economies can and should be realised. Following this Government's emergency Budget it is clearer than ever that helping the release of this potential must be a big part of the next stage of our national economic growth."

One businessman to have been held back by lack of planning consent is Michael Lupton of Michael Lupton Associates, a supplier of products to the police and prison market, who three years ago wanted to expand by building three new properties in a car park near his base at Seaton Ross, near Market Weighton in East Yorkshire.

The application was rejected by planners, not because they were against his business ideas, Mr Lupton said, but rather because they were constrained by national-level guidelines.

Mr Lupton told the Yorkshire Post: "At that particular time there was an opportunity to push on and grow the business in a certain direction. This was thwarted by the fact that I could not get planning permission. This is true for a lot of rural businesses who have had their plans scuppered."

Defra secretary Caroline Spelman welcomed the CRC report saying it brought "useful insights and recommendations".

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