The government today launched its new Rural Productivity Plan, aimed at boosting the rural economy and allow villages and towns in England to build more starter homes for the local population.
The plan, set out by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, and Environment Secretary, Elizabeth Truss, includes investments in education and skills, increasing wages, improving infrastructure and connectivity, and simplifying planning laws for rural businesses and communities.
The new plan comes at a time when the number of people moving in rural areas increases, as the latest figures have revealed thousands are headed to the countryside.
Measures covered by the plan include:
- Amending planning rules to allow Starter Homes to be built on Rural Exception Sites for the first time. This will allow local areas to allocate more sites for Starter Homes specifically for people who already live in the area, or have an existing family or employment connection to the area.
- Working with private sector providers to assess alternative solutions to deliver broadband further into rural areas.
- Improving rural transport connections by feeding the views of rural stakeholders into the second Road Investment Strategy for 2020 to 2025.
- Ensuring fairer funding for rural schools and work with schools and colleges that are currently underperforming or ‘coasting’ to ensure that, where appropriate, they are entering into collaborative arrangements and formal partnerships to raise standards.
- Encouraging rural Local Authorities and providers to make innovative early expressions of interest to deliver 30 hours of free childcare to working parents.
- Setting a new ambition to provide high speed broadband to businesses in all Enterprise Zones in rural areas.
- Considering proposals for increased devolution of powers and greater freedoms to maximise economic growth in areas across the country that put in place strong and accountable local governance.
- Improving connectivity by providing improved transport connections for businesses and passengers in local areas with fifteen brand new routes on the Regional Air Connectivity funding shortlist.
Together these steps will boost productivity and ensure the countryside becomes an even more attractive place for people to live, work, start a business and bring up a family.
Commenting on the launch, Chancellor George Osborne said:
“For too long the British economy has been reliant on businesses based in our cities and towns. We want to create a One Nation economy that taps into the potential of all parts of our country.
“That means setting the right conditions for rural communities and businesses to thrive, investing in education and skills, improving rural infrastructure, and allowing rural villages to thrive and grow.”
