Rural communities voiced

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Dan Rogerson, MP for North Cornwall and Liberal Democrat Minister for Rural Affairs, has hosted a summit of government ministers and officials to make sure the voice of rural areas is being heard across government.

Government ministers and civil servants from the Departments for Business, Communities and Local Government, Culture, Media and Sport, Education, Health, Transport, and Work and Pensions joined Dan Rogerson MP along with independent member of the House of Lords Lord Ewen Cameron who is conducting a review into the best way to effectively ‘rural-proof’ government policies.

Rogerson commented: “I have long campaigned on getting a fair deal for North Cornwall on a range of issues from housing and jobs to local services and public transport. Many of the challenges in delivering services in Cornwall are shared by other rural areas too, and in my new role as Rural Affairs Minister I am keen to make sure that all parts of the government are taking Cornwall and other rural areas seriously.”

Successful examples of rural-proofing government policies include the Post Office minister Jo Swinson announcing a special £20 million fund to keep post offices open in remote communities as part of a wider investment scheme, or Schools Minister David Laws including the issue of sparsity when allocating school funding, to take account of the unique needs of small rural schools.