A radical agenda designed to deliver genuinely sustainable reforms through an ambitious and targeted set of policy priorities for rural communities and the countryside was presented to Parliament on Wednesday by Margaret Beckett, Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

Government Response: Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

Margaret Beckett, secretary of state for the environment said: "I will devolve decision-making and funding for economic regeneration to the RDAs to allow decisions to reflect better the needs and pressures in each region.

"I shall not impose a single structural form - I want to encourage maximum simplification and streamlining, so that regional delivery partners are set free to focus on doing, not talking."

"The Government's policy is to tackle rural exclusion wherever it occurs and achieve fair access to services.

"I will create a small and well-focussed New Countryside Agency by next April to act as an expert 'watchdog' and advocate on behalf of rural communities, particularly the disadvantaged.

"I am establishing an Integrated Agency to deliver our policy objective of a healthy countryside valued and used in a sustainable way.

"The new Agency will be a powerful, independent statutory Non Departmental Public Body, building on the world-class strengths of English Nature, the Countryside Agency and the Rural Development Service. Its remit will be the integrated management of our natural heritage that the challenges and the environmental threats of the 21st century demand."

Party Response: Liberal Democrat

Andrew George, Liberal Democrat rural affairs spokesman, said: "There needs to be an end to woolly ideas about the countryside. It is pointless having a strategy cloaked in conceptual language, and talking of a vision, but which actually achieves nothing.

"DEFRA is still confused about what its strategy really means and hasn’t even worked out which areas should be classed as rural.

"Ministers should be seeking to devolve decisions to local levels rather than to typically city-based regional bodies. Local areas shouldn’t have to go cap-in-hand to remote regional quangos which treat rural areas as an afterthought.

"If the government really does want to make sure that rural life does not become the exclusive preserve of the well-off, it needs to tackle the lack of affordable housing by changing its planning policies and finally putting its money where its mouth is."

Stakeholder Response: Action within Communities in Rural England

Sylvia Brown ACRE’s chief executive said: “The time-scale imposed after two years of thinking about it means we will all have to work very closely to ensure there isn’t a vacuum in service delivery.

"All sorts of programmes, such as transport, access to health and other services could be in danger whilst new structures become effective.We’ll be seeking urgent talks with our new partners to see this doesn’t happen.

"It will be important to match programmes to the needs of communities under the new urban rural definitions also announced today.

"This is just one more in a set of unknowns in terms of delivering appropriate support to communities across the country.

"Today’s announcement provides welcome recognition for the hard work and achievements of RCCs and we look forward to working with government offices to ensure that an integrated support service is provided for rural communities."

Stakeholder Response: Countryside Alliance

Simon Hart Alliance chief executive commented: "While the Alliance welcomes
the commitment to implement many of the recommendations of the Haskin's
Report we are concerned about some of the detail of the announcement, and
the completion of Lord Haskins' proposals.

"We support the devolution of rural delivery, but do not believe that Regional Development Agencies (RDAs), with their concentration on urban regeneration, are the correct vehicles for delivery to local rural communities. Most
successful sustainable rural regeneration projects are small scale - RDAs deal with huge, artificially created, regions with a natural bias towards areas of high population.

"We would urge the secretary of state to reconsider her decision to continue to combine the roles of chairman of the Countryside Agency and rural advocate to avoid any questions over perceived conflicts of interest.

"The Alliance will also continue to push for full implementation of those of Lord Haskins' recommendations, including those for DEFRA itself, which were not addressed in today's statement".

Stakeholder Response: Countryside Agency

Pam Warhurst, chairman of the Countryside Agency, said: "Regional and local
delivery bodies will be expected to provide more effective and customer-friendly services for England's countryside.

"Making sure that ambitious policy intentions translate into reality on the ground will be a key role for the new integrated agency and for the regional development agencies, as they take over the Countryside Agency's current socio-economic demonstration role.

"The rural strategy will create a delivery focus for deprived rural areas, but it is equally important to address the needs of disadvantaged people in the more prosperous areas of the countryside. That means rural proofing of policies at all levels of government, national, regional and local.

"At the heart of this announcement is the new countryside agency's role as statutory advocate, expert adviser and independent watchdog. It has a vital role to play in monitoring whether these new delivery arrangements do deliver for rural people, rural businesses and the environment, and give people assurance that promise turned into reality.

"We are working closely with our partners to ensure that the complex agenda for sustainable land use and the public benefits that flow from it, can benefit from the formation of an integrated body. Such a body will only work if recreation and access are as important to its vision as biodiversity to ensure that people and the rural economy can benefit from the investment the nation makes in conservation."

Stakeholder Response: Woodland Trust

Ed Pomfret, senior public affairs officer at the Woodland Trust, said: "We welcome moves to ensure the Forestry Commission works closely with the new agency as we believe the aims of both should be to ensure that we achieve a joined-up approach land use.

"However, we would have liked to see more detail at this stage as to how this partnership will actually work. It is vital that the relationship is seamless and that important issues do not 'fall between the cracks'.

"We strongly support the shift in emphasis that the strategy represents towards a more integrated approach to land management.

"We also welcome the fact that the new agency has nature conservation, biodiversity and access as primary functions.

"Conservation of biodiversity must be central to its remit and it is essential that the biodiversity functions of English Nature are maintained and strengthened as this body is absorbed into the new agency.

"There must be also minimal disruption to biodiversity conservation as the changeover takes place.

"As the new structures will require primary legislation we believe that this provides an opportunity to review the outdated Forestry Act which governs how the FC operates."