Last month, £724,851 was awarded to farmers and foresters in our constituency through the Farming Equipment and Technology Fund.
This will boost farm productivity, reduce waste and cut costs, as part of the Government’s commitment to invest £2.4 billion per year in England’s farming.
That’s just one strand of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs's ‘Unleashing Rural Opportunity’ drive to support rural communities. Split across four broad themes of housing, communities, connectivity and growth, the plan will help create jobs and drive growth in rural areas, including proposals to expand internet provision and scale up the availability of affordable housing in rural communities.
You can read the full document HERE, with just a tiny snapshot below:
- Developing rural skills through £1.5m Forestry Training Fund and a further £34m in 2024-25 for Skills Bootcamps.
- £50m for our Farming in Protected Landscapes programme for farmers in National Parks and Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty.
- Working with businesses and the British Tourist Authority to showcase our rural landmarks, countryside, market towns, villages and coastline.
- Increasing funding for bursaries for 16-19s by 10%, benefiting those who travel furthest to college each day.
- £7m for a trial of rural mesh networks (satellite and fixed wireless) in particular for agriculture use cases, helping support farmers and tourism businesses to access lightning fast, reliable connectivity in remote areas for the first time.
- Lay regulations by this July to increase flytipping and litter penalties, and consult with key stakeholders on ringfencing use of fixed penalty receipts released through fines.
- Publishing a Dental Plan shortly, which will set out further reform to improve access to NHS Dentistry, including in rural areas that find it particularly hard to recruit and retain dentists and other dental care professionals.
