Defra has today announced the launch of three new Rural and Farming Networks, which it claims will give rural residents “a hotline direct to government”. The three new networks join fourteen others unveiled in January.

The networks, unveiled today by environment minister Richard Benyon, are:

• The Wessex Rural and Farming Network (covering Dorset, Hampshire, Isle of Wight, Surrey, West Berkshire, West Sussex and Wiltshire);
• Cumbria & North Lancashire Farming, Food & Rural Group; and
• Cheshire, South and West Lancashire, Merseyside & Manchester Land Use Farming & Rural Group.

The networks are intended to feed back local issues and concerns in order to inform ministers on policies affecting rural regions. They were unveiled after the coalition government decided to scrap the Commission for Rural Communities as part of its ‘bonfire of the quangos’ on coming to power. Whereas the CRC’s main focus was on rural residents’ interests, the new networks concentrate mainly on supporting business.  

The government said the groups will also provide information, assistance and a point of contact in the event of local emergencies, such as flooding. The self-funding groups are made up of representatives of rural businesses and communities. According to the Defra website, the chairs of each group will have contact with Defra ministers “at least once a year to discuss issues of significance” as part of their “hotline”.

Environment Minister Richard Benyon said upon announcing the three new networks, “We are giving rural communities a new voice so that their interests will not be neglected by Government as they have been in the past.  These Rural and Farming Networks are making us aware of the problems that local businesses face so that we can tackle them and provide the right opportunities for businesses to grow.”

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