Government financial support for rural community councils

  1. Purpose of this paper: this paper has been prepared by CAN (Community Action Northumberland) to give an overviewof the Government’s financial support, via DEFRA, for the work of rural community councils (RCCs), across rural England.
  1. Rural Community Councils: There are 38 RCCs which, together, cover all parts of rural England. RCCs are county-wide charities which exist to promote and support rural communities and to address rural issues.

With their origins in the 1920s, RCCs monitor and seek to influence a wide range of issues affecting the sustainabilityof rural areas, such as housing, shops, schools, public transport, broadband infrastructure, and business support. RCCs also provide expert advice, information and encouragementto community-led initiatives, including key community bodies such as parish councils, village hall committees and development trusts.

  1. Relationships with Government: since the 1930s, the Government has provided basic financial support for RCCs, as part of a symbiotic relationship which has provided an effective link between local communities and the ‘rural arm’ of Government (variously, the Development Commission, Countryside Agency, Government Offices for the Regions and now DEFRA.The relationship has continued without interruption for some 80 years, although each period of support has been for only 2, 3 or 4 years.
  1. Current arrangements with DEFRA: DEFRA’s current financial agreement runs until March 2015. Its main purposes are to enable RCCs and their national body ACRE to deliver the following:

(i) Local Strategic Influencing: of local authorities, LEPs and other key Government partnerships and agencies

(ii) Supporting local communities to take action for themselves: for example, on broadband/digitalskills, transport, community energy, affordable housing and neighbourhood planning.

(iii) Sharing learning on sustainable funding models

(iv) Providing DEFRA with access to local intelligence.

The level of financial support has fluctuated over the years, but always in the region of several £m pa. Currently the nationwide expenditure is about £2.3m pa, which is distributed to each of the 38 RCCs on a formula which reflects the varying geography and ‘need’ of each county area.

  1. Community Action Northumberland Since its creation in 1951, CANhas provided a wide range of support to Northumberland’s rural areas, including:

-Advice, information and training to individual groups on matters as diverse as acquiring and running premises, charity law, planning and financial management (for example, to the 240 community buildings groups, 150 parish councils, and 20+ development trusts in our area)

-Monitoring and working with council departments, utility providers and government agencies in order to develop new initiatives, facilitate rural outreach and ensure ‘rurally-appropriate’ decisions (for example, with successive EU programmes, Superfast Broadband, the Government’s Green Deal and worklessness schemes.

-Researching and promoting good ideas and practice( for example in the fields of affordable housing, renewable energy, flood alleviation and water supplies)

-Facilitating and providing the ‘rural community voice’ into a variety of local and central government channels (for example, the regional rural and farming network, local enterprise partnership, and planning consultations)

  1. Implications for rural Northumberland: CAN currently receives £58k pa through this agreement. CAN’s other income includes a range of short-term project finance, together with diverse charitable donations and the £30k pa arrangement to provideprofessionalsupport services for NALC (Northumberland Association of Local Councils). Together, these income streams enable CAN to employ a very small staff team to deliver both the DEFRA ‘rural affairs work’, plus additional community development initiatives. With the cessation of other, time-limited funding streams such as the Big Lottery and the County Council’s Connect for Change programme during 2014, the DEFRA support is now the single-largest source of CAN’s income.

DEFRA’s support is hugely important in enabling CANboth to provide expert support to rural communities and to act for rural communities. Without a continuation of DEFRA’s financial support, it is difficult to see whether CAN could continue to provide these important services.

CAN Jan 15