Posted: 04th Jan, 2012 By: MarkJ


The
Country Land and Business Association (CLA), a lobby group for owners of land and property across
England and
Wales, has today welcomed remarks from the UK governments Secretary of State for Rural Affairs (
DEFRA),
Caroline Spelman MP, whom admitted that rural communities and businesses were being "
left on their own to try to find solutions to the problems they face".
Spelman's comments were made as part of the governments newly announced
Rural and Farming Network (RFN). Under the new plan
fourteen networks will be set-up to represent different areas of England. The networks will seek to
identify and feed back local issues and concerns to the Government, which could foster the development of more "
rural-friendly" policies.
CLA President, Harry Cotterell, said:
"The CLA has been saying this for many years, so it is heartening a government minister finally acknowledges the depth of inequality between urban and rural areas.
The measures to help the rural economy, announced by the Chancellor in November, were a good start but still more needs to be done to ensure fairness for rural communities and businesses – with a commitment to providing fast broadband for all and affordable housing for rural workers and to scrapping empty property business rates."
The CLA has repeatedly warned that rural areas often experience "
difficulties in getting adequate broadband connections" and that an
urban-rural divide exists. It also wants the government to raise its minimum download speed target from 2Mbps to at least 5Mbps.