Brexit: and 10 key questions for rural policy

In this part of the world we should be concerned about the impact of Brexit on our rural communities:
Futures Forum: Brexit: and how best to encourage healthy rural communities and and opportunities for economic growth in the post Brexit countryside
Futures Forum: Brexit: and rural devolution >>> "Tailoring agri-environment schemes to fit regional requirements"

Here's the latest analysis:

After Brexit: 10 Key questions for rural policy

The UK’s forthcoming exit from the EU could offer an unforeseen opportunity to rethink policy approaches. Much is yet uncertain.

However, the Common Agricultural Policy will no longer apply, the Single Farm Payment and rural development funding such as LEADER will be swept away. Questions must be posed about what should replace them.

These questions have to reach beyond agriculture to consider how the needs of rural communities should be supported in order to give them the best chance of thriving and playing their full part in the future of the UK

Open Fields - Technical and Business Information Item:

It comes from a paper just produced at Newcastle University - and the first issue should be of most interest:

1 How can national and local government plan support for rural communities to reach their full economic potential? 

We know that “networked rural development” has been shown to be successful and this approach now informs rural policy around the world. It is a model that brings together the local and external, the bottom up and top down, with local people having opportunities to steer development. 

This was the thinking behind the EU’s LEADER and Community-Led Local Development programmes. Some rural communities already have the skills, assets, networks and institutional capacity to compete strongly. At the same time, without the necessary resources of support, rural communities that have not yet developed these capacities and networks may become impoverished, losing services and infrastructure, and so become less able to reach their full potential. 

In order to ensure that all rural communities have the opportunity to contribute to sustainable economic growth and wellbeing following Brexit, policymakers will need to consider: 

 How can we draw on our experience of European programmes and the successes of the Local Enterprise Partnerships and Rural Growth Networks, and on the valuable evidence we already have (including evaluations of Defra’s Rural Development Programme for England) to inform immediate actions in the wake of Brexit? 

 What further research is needed in order to design longer term policies for economic growth in the countryside? 

 What key elements need to be included in a place-based rural development programme to avoid communities being left behind in economic and social progress?

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10 Policy Qs about Brexit final 16 Feb 2017.pdf
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