For councillors representing rural communities, the connection between national policy and everyday life is clear.
A bus timetable can determine whether someone can accept a job. The availability of affordable housing can decide whether a care worker stays locally. Distance affects both access to services and the cost of providing them.
These connections shaped September’s National Rural Conference, hosted by the Rural Services Network (RSN). Almost 600 delegates joined four days of discussion, with 37 speakers and more than three-quarters of our member local authorities represented.
As RSN Chair, I was encouraged by the breadth of experience brought together. Councillors and officers shared a platform with researchers, service providers and practitioners, exploring what works and where barriers remain.
The RSN is the national champion for rural services in England and an LGA special interest group. We bring together local authorities and organisations delivering services across rural England, giving their evidence and experience a collective national voice.
Our strength lies in connecting the people who understand rural delivery with those shaping policy.
Government representatives attended 75 per cent of conference sessions, providing opportunities to hear from members. This exchange matters, because understanding how a policy operates in a dispersed community is essential to making it effective.
Across discussions on funding, housing, transport, connectivity, health and care, the rural economy and net zero, a consistent message emerged. Successful policy starts with understanding the place it serves.
For councils, that means recognising how different responsibilities interact. Housing provision affects recruitment. Transport affects access to healthcare and training. Digital inclusion affects whether residents can use services increasingly delivered online. Funding underpins councils’ ability to respond across all these areas.
It also means looking carefully at the evidence. An area’s apparent affluence can mask rural deprivation, low incomes, high travel costs, limited access to essential services and difficulty affording home heating, particularly for households reliant on off-grid fuels.
Measures of success must capture these pressures and whether people can actually access services and opportunities, alongside what infrastructure has been provided.
The conference gave members space to examine these connections together, share practical approaches and learn from experience elsewhere. That exchange is an important part of the RSN’s work throughout the year.
Following the conference, Chief Executive Kerry Booth and I wrote an open letter to the Prime Minister, bringing the discussions into a national conversation about growth and public services.
The letter drew together six priorities: rural growth, fair funding, the cost of living, appropriate housing, connectivity and ensuring national policy works in every place. It offered our members’ knowledge and experience to help turn the ambition for ‘good growth in every postcode’ into meaningful local outcomes.
As local government reform and devolution reshape how decisions are made, a strong rural network remains essential.
Wherever boundaries lie and however local government is organised, the RSN will continue to connect councils and service providers, support shared learning and give rural communities a collective national voice.
Our role is to ensure rural councils and service providers help shape policy, bringing local experience and research into national decisions affecting their communities.
- Find out more about the Rural Services Network.