RSN Manifesto

Its out – stimulate the debate as widely as you can – our manifesto covers 11 key areas. A brief summary is set out below:

Planning: the planning system is now stacked against local authorities and communities. Local wishes are too often overridden at appeal, with house building given the go-ahead in the wrong locations.

Affordable housing: the ill thought through proposal to exempt smaller housing development schemes from any obligation to provide some affordable homes should be scrapped, at least for settlements with fewer than 3,000 residents.

Local government finance: the formulae used by Government to distribute grants among local authorities needs revision. The current approach is demonstrably unfair to rural residents and taxpayers

Public transport: bus services –Local authorities should be funded to cover the home-to-school transport costs of 16 to 19 year olds who stay in education. The value of Bus Service Operators Grant must be protected.

Health facilities: the oft-stated wish to see more of the NHS budget spent locally needs to be pursued, to improve access to non-specialist treatments for rural communities.

Older people: many support services for older people have to be put out to competitive tender. It should not be permissible for tendering organisations to cherry-pick urban centres, where it is easier to deliver them cheaply, whilst ignoring rural areas.

Fuel poverty: with over half of village homes off the mains gas network and many solid wall homes, fuel poverty is a key rural concern.

Village services: remaining basic services, like the pub, shop and post office, are the life blood of villages.

Broadband connectivity: broadband has become an everyday necessity for most businesses and households. Yet without some public sector intervention rural areas will always lose out.

The rural economy: Business support and advice services must extend into rural locations, so these opportunities are not squandered.

Rural proofing: we will look to an incoming Government to recommit to the principle of rural proofing – that its policy making will take proper account of rural needs.