Labour Party Conference – The View from Rural

7 hours… that’s how long it took our Chief Executive Kerry Booth to get to the Labour Party Conference last week on the train, from rural Devon to bustling Liverpool, giving the feeling that the ‘place to be’ where policy was being discussed was a long way from our rural communities. 

However, Kerry was immediately struck by the images everywhere at the conference, with almost every tv screen and poster displaying the slogan ‘Renew Britain’ in front of a rural background. This gave the impression that our rural communities were going to be the focus of efforts to renew Britain, would this be the time to see our digital connectivity improved, our transport more frequent enabling access to vital public services and a plan to deliver affordable housing in the right places in our rural communities?

Over the course of 3 days, Kerry attended lots of sessions and discussions, hearing debate on everything from Coastal Futures and the case for seaside renewal, to the role of technology in supporting place based services, the small business strategy delivering local economic growth and the next stage of the EV transition.

Of particular note was a session hosted by the Labour Housing Group exploring how the labour housing mission can address rural and coastal poverty with a panel including Martin Collett, Chief Executive of English Rural Housing Association, Jo Lavis, Director Rural Housing Solutions, Jayne Kirkham MP for Truro and Falmouth, David Skaith, Mayor of York and North Yorkshire and Ruwani Purcell, Director of External Affairs from Citizens Advice.  During this session, the panel shared lots of their own experiences of the challenges facing rural residents in accessing affordable housing with some of the solutions too.

Kerry was delighted to attend the reception hosted by the Fabian Society and CPRE where they were joined by the DEFRA Minister Dame Angela Eagle MP.  This event included the launch of a collection of essays focusing on Rural Futures- the British Countryside and its potential, with one written by Kerry herself exploring rural health care. 

Kerry has shared three key take aways from the conference from a rural perspective:

"1 – People are starting to talk more about rural, I attended more fringe sessions this year that actually mentioned the needs of rural communities, or the need for policy that isn’t just one size fits all.

2 – There was a real enthusiasm amongst organisations that represent rural communities and rural special interests to come together to make their voice heard.  It was fantastic to see the energy from groups like the Labour Rural Research Group who hosted an event sharing their report Understanding Rural Britain.

3 – We still need to see the lively discussions taking place at fringe sessions, replicated onto the conference stage.  The plans for NHS Online sound great for residents who have a lack of public transport preventing them getting to appointments, but if the digital connectivity is not improved, this policy will leave behind rural residents without the technology and skills to take part."

The only way to Renew Britain is to ensure that rural are part of that journey, not just as token images of green, rolling countryside, but as places that can drive economic growth, as places that can help us along the net zero journey, and places where people can access warm, safe affordable homes, and where communities can thrive.