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About Us
The Rural Services Network is a membership organisation devoted to safeguarding and improving services in rural communities across England.

Already 250 organisations across the complete range of rural services are in membership, including local authorities, public bodies, businesses, charities and voluntary groups across the spectrum of rural service provision.

We are the only national network specifically focusing on this vital aspect of rural life.

The network has three main purposes:
  • Representing the case for a better deal for rural service provision
  • Exchanging useful and relevant information
  • Developing and sharing best practice
The Rural Services Network exists to ensure services delivered to the communities of predominantly rural* England are as strong and as effective as possible.

To join now and become part of a national network devoted to sharing experiences and lobbying government to recognise the increased costs and complexity of rural service delivery, please click here.

This website has been developed in conjunction with the two operating arms of the network: the Sparsity Partnership for Authorities Delivering Rural Services (SPARSE) and the Rural Services Partnership.

*The term 'predominately rural' refers to counties and Local Authority districts with at least 50 percent of their population living in rural settlements (ie. rural towns, villages, hamlets and dispersed dwellings) as identified in the Office for National Statistics' rural definition, and including larger market towns as identified in the Defra classification of Local Authority districts. The rural definition and classification were devised by the Rural Evidence Research Centre (RERC) at Birkbeck College. Further information on these can be found on the RERC website at www.rerc.ac.uk.