Whitehall accused of failing rural communities

Picture: Cliff Donaldson

Rural communities are being failed by central government, according to a new report out today.

The report by the select committee on the national environment and rural communities act 2006 claims cutbacks to various Whitehall departments and public bodies has had a ‘profound’ and ‘negative’ impact on the biodiversity, environment and social and economic welfare of rural areas.

In particular, the report calls for the responsibility for rural affairs to be transferred from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government.

‘Responsibility for rural policy and rural communities does not sit well within Defra, with the department being predominantly focused upon the important environment, agriculture and food elements of its remit,’ the report states. ‘This focus will intensify as a result of Brexit.

‘This change would ensure that responsibility for rural communities sits within the central government department that is responsible for communities as a whole as, indeed, it did prior to the creation of Defra. It would also ensure that responsibility rested in the department which oversees local authorities, who are the key delivery agents for most services to rural communities.’

The report also recommends that ‘each and every’ Whitehall department take into account the circumstances facing rural communities when developing policy.

‘At present, the responsibility for promoting rural proofing across government rests with Defra, but Defra does not have the cross-government influence or capacity required to embed rural proofing more widely,’ the report notes.

And it also warns Brexit could create a ‘governance gap’ for environmental protection in the UK and claims the public body Natural England, which was established in 2006 to protect the countryside ‘no longer has a distinctive voice’.

‘The reduction of Natural England’s role has left a vacuum which in many cases local authorities have been required to fill, without the adequate resources or expertise to do so,’ the report states.

‘As Natural England has withdrawn, there has been little clarity as to the changing scope of its role or the expectations on local authorities. In the light of mutual resource pressures, Natural England should be clearer as to when it will play an active part in planning policy and decision-making, and when it will refer to other bodies.’

The committee chair, Lord Cameron of Dillington, said it is clear that the government are ‘failing to take proper account of the needs of rural communities’.

‘Departmental decisions and policies continue to demonstrate a lack of rural understanding among Whitehall policy makers,’ added Lord Cameron.

‘Each and every government department should be required to think about the ways in which their policies affect rural people, and the government must take action to ensure that this “rural-proofing” of policy happens.’

• To read the full committee report, click here.