A £10.35m investment is helping policy-makers better meet the needs of rural people, says a report.

The Rural Community Action Network (RCAN) Investment Programme is being delivered by Action with Communities in Rural England (ACRE).

It seeks to improve the way in which the needs of rural communities are addressed by national, regional and local government.

Progress after two years of the three-year programme is revealed in an interim study published by Capacitybuilders.

The initiative has improved the capacity of rural community councils to ensure rural needs are brought more fully into mainstream policy-making, it says.

Successes to date include:

• Improving service delivery plans: so that they better suit the needs of rural communities.
• Securing external funding so rural communities can access funding streams for activities such as improvements to community buildings.
• Improvements to policy processes: notably where rural proofing or community-led planning has been adopted by local authorities and partnerships.

The programme is being delivered by ACRE on behalf of the Department for Food, Environment and Rural Affairs (Defra).

A Defra spokesman said investment in the network was bearing fruit in terms of improving RCAN members’ capacity to achieve their objectives.

“Rural community councils and [their] regional bodies play a valuable role in promoting the needs and interests of rural communities.”

The interim evaluation was conducted by Brian Wilson Associates and David Atkinson Consulting.

The full report can be downloaded here (1.03MB pdf) and the executive summary is available here (395.83KB pdf).

Printed copies can be requested from This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

TrackBack URI for this entry

Comments (0)

Subscribe to this comment's feed

Show/hide comments

Show/hide comment form