As Defra and Local
Enterprise Partnerships consult on future funds for economic growth and rural
areas, will you be having your say, asks Roger Turner, Rural economies
consultant and Honorary Fellow at the Centre for Rural Economy, Newcastle
University.
Where does the future of our countryside lie? Understandably,
some will argue that good land management remains at the heart of our rural
economies and society, and requires continuing and adequate direct payments to
farmers and other land managers. Nobody
would dispute that growing food is important.
At the same time, others will validly call on government to match the
funds to today’s profile of rural economies, drawing on the myriad of evidence
that many local rural economies have long since ceased to be dominated by
land-dependent business, community and household activities, needs and
outputs. Both perspectives may be
correct, distinguished as much by where you operate, advise or represent –
spatially, sectorally or functionally – as by the evidence on which you draw to
justify your point of view. Whichever of
these perspectives reflects your experience, we should avoid this debate
amongst rural friends distracting us from the more important goal of gaining
equitable recognition for rural economies, environment and communities from those
who are currently planning the allocation of future funding, particularly
from Europe .
A shift in rural funding towards rural growth from non-farming and food industries could rescue hundreds of
thousands of enterprises and employees from regular, marginalising and devaluing phrases too often
heard in speeches by rural leaders, including ministers, as “farming, food and
other rural businesses”. (my emphasis)
A significant shift of rural funds and attention to rural
growth and landscape- scale environmental management schemes for example, would
also send a powerful signal to those who hold, target and distribute EU and
national funds that are not labelled ‘agriculture’ or ‘rural’, that rural
economies and societies are more than the land, are not marginal, not
homogenous, not without potential. They
share diversity and opportunity, and deliver outputs and benefits, similar to
and occasionally exceeding, urban economies, yet retain special and additional
environmental and community qualities which society and governments need to
steward. As such, rural sustainable and
inclusive growth is as much the responsibility of public and business bodies as
those of our towns, cities and global linkages.
Over the last couple of months a new approach of integration
and devolution, arising from the EU’s Common Strategic Framework, has generated
two rare opportunities for business and resident communities across urban,
rural, coastal, remote and densely-populated areas to help set priorities,
develop programmes and projects, and target funds for the next 6 years. And the insight and voice of rural
professionals is sorely needed.
Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) are providing the first
of these opportunities, as they consult on their draft European Structural and
Investment Funds (ESIF) Strategies.
Defra ministers launched the second as a consultation on recently-agreed
CAP reforms. Both have far reaching impacts
on the future balance of growth between different types of territory, as well
as between beneficiaries and activities within rural and other places. The CAP Reform consultation is the most
comprehensive and open consultation about the national allocation of EU’s rural
funds that I can remember, since the government’s ALURE (Alternative Land Uses
and Rural Economy) initiative in the mid-1980s.
LEPs’ ESIF Strategies give form to the EU’s Common Strategic
Framework at a local level. Responding
to a plethora of advice from the UK Government over the summer, these
Strategies will set priorities and share of EU funds from 2014-20. These funds are worth several tens of
billions of pounds, and rural needs deserve to be embedded within these
commitments.
Draft Strategies were submitted to the UK Government in
early October. Their initial response has
been made to all LEPs. Whilst more work
remains to be done, most LEPs have apparently avoided focusing on Protection of
environment, Climate change and Transport Objectives, and rural development is often
weakly addressed. Some LEPs are matching
the spirit of integration from the EU Framework, setting out priorities and
proposals such that any group, community or business, working to deliver its
strategic objectives should be eligible to bid for funds, irrespective of their
location. This seamless approach is far
from universal. Industries, functions,
economic drivers chosen as the focus of some LEP Strategies, will marginalise
or exclude some territories, businesses or communities including rural ones, by
their design. Sadly, others have
continued weak practices and outdated perspectives of rural economies and
environment, presuming them only to be farming and food-dependent or committing
to invest in rural and environmental activities only if rural
development funds (EAFRD) are allocated to them. Unless Defra and rural
stakeholders overturn such outmoded perspectives in their responses to these
strategies, rural economies, environment and communities will remain
semi-detached from this integrating and rebalancing aspiration.
An opportunity and challenge no less substantial and
critical to rural areas, was started by the Secretary of State for Food,
Environment and Rural Affairs at the beginning of November. By the time you read this Defra will have
laid this out to farmers, business and community leaders in rural regions, as
part of a country-wide effort to engage communities across England
Although we have been offered glimpses of the tense and
prolonged EU negotiations over CAP in the last year, with hints of prospects
and challenges for a substantial shift of funds from the first group into the
rural development pillar, I suspect that few of us expected to be offered such
a comprehensive and open opportunity to have our say on future directions for
England’s countryside and rural areas, as that now underway. The questions and supporting evidence, extend
from principles that inform a strategic shift of up to 15% of England
As rural professionals our insight and expertise to bring together and balance competing demands and outcomes, is needed to ensure that ‘rural’ is an integral part of rebalanced economies at local, national and EU levels. I hope we all grasp the opportunities offered in these two current consultations.
The Defra consultation is available at https://consult.defra.gov.uk/agricultural-policy/cap-consultation
