Tag: rural

Bishop of Lincoln asks about improving mental health provision in smaller and rural school settings

The Bishop of Lincoln asked a question on improving mental health provision in primary schools, particularly schools in small, rural settings, on 4th February 2025:

The Lord Bishop of Lincoln: My Lords, the Rural Mental Health report produced in the other place highlighted that

“NHS mental health services are often not fairly accessible for rural communities”,

with services largely centred in towns and cities,

“creating barriers to access, compounded by the limitations and weaknesses of rural public transport and digital connectivity”.

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Bishop of St Albans asks about digital exclusion in rural areas

The Bishop of St Albans asked a question on digital exclusion in rural areas on 7th January 2025, following a government statement on health and adult social care reform:

The Lord Bishop of St Albans: My Lords, I am grateful to His Majesty’s Government for trying to get cross-party agreement on this really important issue; it is important that it does not get lost in party politics. It is good to hear about the improvements to the NHS app, which is working quite well in some areas already. However, some people are digitally excluded, and there is a lack of connectivity in rural areas. How are we going to ensure that these groups are not excluded as we go forward with this important work?

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Bishop of St Albans asks about affordable rural housing

The Bishop of St Albans asked a question on affordable housing in rural areas on 18th December 2024, during a discussion on Permitted Development Rights (PDR):

The Lord Bishop of St Albans: My Lords, can the Minister tell us what steps her department is taking to ensure that enough of the homes being built under the PDR are affordable for local people in rural areas?

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Bishop of Gloucester asks about rural cost of living

The Bishop of Gloucester received the following written answer on 17th December 2024:

The Lord Bishop of Gloucester asked His Majesty’s Government further to the report Hidden Hardship, published by Dr Stephanie Denning of Coventry University in November 2023, what assessment they have made of the need (1) to tailor support provided through the welfare state for people experiencing rural hardship, and (2) to address the lack of affordable housing, public transport, and amenities in rural areas.

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Bishop of St Albans asks about housebuilding in rural areas

The Bishop of St Albans asked a question on housebuilding targets in rural areas on 13th December 2024:

The Lord Bishop of St Albans: My Lords, if the potential of rural exception sites were to be fully realised, it would make a transformative change for small rural communities, not least in providing the additional affordable housing that is desperately needed. It is frustrating because just before I came in I was trying to read the NPPF response to the consultation but I could not find it. Are His Majesty’s Government committed to introducing a national development management policy for rural exception sites?

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Bishop of St Albans speaks in debate on housing, highlighting the needs of rural communities

On 5th December 2024, the Bishop of St Albans also spoke in a debate on housing, emphasising the effects of the housing crisis on rural areas:

The Lord Bishop of St Albans: My Lords, I too thank the noble Baroness, Lady Warwick of Undercliffe, for securing this important debate. I declare my interests as president of the Rural Coalition and vice-president of the LGA. I offer my thanks to the most reverend Primate the Archbishop of Canterbury for his valedictory speech. During his tenure, he has been a champion of housing, and we have already referred to the Coming Home report, which is pertinent both to today’s debate and to His Majesty’s Government, with their very good and ambitious targets to build more housing. I hope we can assist the Government in achieving that.

Homelessness and rough sleeping are on the rise. Government statutory homelessness figures, released last week, reveal that 159,380 children are now homeless and living in temporary accommodation, a 15% increase in a year and the highest figure since records began in 2004. More particularly, the November 2023 CPRE report on the state of rural housing showed that rural homelessness has increased by 20% since 2021 and 40% since 2018-19.

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Bishop of Lincoln asks about child poverty strategy

The Bishop of Lincoln received the following written answer on 22nd November 2024:

The Lord Bishop of Lincoln asked His Majesty’s Government how the Child Poverty Strategy intends to reduce child poverty in rural and coastal communities.

Baroness Sherlock (Lab, DWP): We are committed to delivering our manifesto commitment to tackle child poverty which is why we have set up a Ministerial Taskforce that is urgently working to publish the Child Poverty Strategy in Spring 2025.

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Bishop of St Albans speaks in support of farming families and communities

The Bishop of St Albans spoke in a debate on the continuity of farming families on 21st November 2024, highlighting the levels of stress among farmers and the need to reconcile raising revenue with supporting farming communities:

The Lord Bishop of St Albans: My Lords, I too congratulate the noble Baroness, Lady Northover, on securing this debate. I declare my interests as president of the Rural Coalition and a vice-president of the LGA. I am a farmer’s son, and one of the great privileges of my job serving in a diocese that covers Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire is going into some of the most wonderful, forward-looking and innovative farms in this country, which are at the forefront of farming across Europe.

Even though there are many successful, go-ahead farmers, there is nevertheless a huge level of mental stress among them. That has been true for many years. Sadly, there is an extraordinarily high number of suicides among the farming community. As one elderly farmer put it, “Many of us are feeling so depressed because these announcements suggest that we are not wanted and are worth more dead than alive”. He pointed out that if he manages to die before April 2026, his assets will be passed on; if he does not, the farm will probably not survive.

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Church Commissioners Questions: Rural Communities, Former Church Sites, Access to Places of Worship, Independent Safeguarding Board Review, Recognition of Positive Impact, Interfaith Understanding, Ordination of Women: 30th Anniversary, Restoration Funding,

On 17th October 2024, Marsha de Cordova MP, the Second Church Estates Commissioner, gave the following answers to questions from MPs:

Small Rural Communities

Ms Julie Minns MP (Lab, Carlisle) asked:  What steps the Church of England is taking to support parish life in small rural communities.

Continue reading “Church Commissioners Questions: Rural Communities, Former Church Sites, Access to Places of Worship, Independent Safeguarding Board Review, Recognition of Positive Impact, Interfaith Understanding, Ordination of Women: 30th Anniversary, Restoration Funding,”

Bishop of St Albans highlights need for investment in rural communities

The Bishop of St Albans spoke in a debate on government priorities for rural communities on 15th October 2024, raising the need for concentrated investment in key sectors such as housing in rural areas:

The Lord Bishop of St Albans: My Lords, I thank the noble Baroness, Lady McIntosh, for getting this debate and I congratulate the noble Lord, Lord Elliott, on his excellent speech. I declare my interest as president of the Rural Coalition.

Rural communities make up nearly 20% of the population. That is similar to the number of people living in London, yet our biggest metropolis, among others, often feels far more integral to our policy and governance than our rural communities do. Rural communities are not just the responsibility of Defra; they are a significant proportion of our population, businesses, services and economy, and they cut across every government department. The specific impacts and challenges of policy rollout in rural areas need to be baked into the decision-making process of every single government department—not an afterthought but integral to the development of policy from the very beginning. Rural concerns are so often given to Defra which, while it has the lead on rural affairs, has very few of the levers necessary to bring about change. The sustainability of our rural communities should be of critical concern to us all, regardless of where we live.

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