Rural Services Network SIG - annual report to LGA Board 2025

• Lead Member: Councillor Roger Phillips (Herefordshire Council)
• Lead Officer: Kerry Booth
• Email: [email protected]
• Address: Rural Services Network
• Telephone: 01822 851370
• Website: www.rsnonline.org.uk

The Rural Services Network comprises 78 local authorities split into SPARSE rural and Assembly groupings which meet twice a year. Each of these local authorities are also members of the Rural Health and Care Alliance, a partnership between the Rural Services Network and the National Centre for Rural Health and Care.

The other LGA recognised sub-group includes the Rural Fire and Rescue Services Group which has 6 members and seeks to present arguments common to County and Combined Services operating in areas that have significant rural areas.

The Rural Services Network is however, much more widespread than these Special Interest Groups and further information can be found in the RSN Member section on our website at: https://rsnonline.org.uk/page/rsn-membership This includes information about the Rural Services Partnership, a membership organisation for over 200 non-local authorities such as rural Housing Associations, Health Trusts, charities and national organisations delivering services in rural areas. The Rural Market Town Group and Rural Village Servies Group have been established in recent years which has over 200 Towns and Parish Councils in membership.

In total the Rural Services Network represents the interests of over 500 organisations across the public, private and voluntary sector.

Our main aim is to act as the national champion for rural services, ensuring that people in rural areas have a strong voice. We are fighting for a fair deal for rural communities to maintain their social and economic viability for the benefit of the nation as a whole.

Our current campaign, Delivering for Rural, which was launched in 2024 sets out a series of asks which we want to see the Government include in its policies and strategies. The challenges rural communities face cannot be tackled in isolation, our communities need homes they can afford, with good jobs, connectivity to enable businesses to grow and access to public services that are fairly funded.

For Sparse Rural local authorities our main priority is the funding formula and working to ensure that rural areas receive fair funding to enable them to deliver their services, taking into account the additional costs of service delivery in rural areas. To find out more about our success to date on this see: https://www.rsnonline.org.uk/page/rural-fair-funding

For the Rural Assembly, our main priority is to seek to influence Government and policy makers across a whole range of issues facing rural service providers and communities in line with the priority areas set out in Delivering for Rural campaign.

The Rural Services SIG priorities chime directly with the Goals of the LGA, The RSN SIG:

Champion and Represent Local Government by ensuring that decision makers understand the challenges facing rural local authorities in the delivery of services.

Continue and Improve Local Government by sharing best practice amongst members, and raising awareness of rural challenges at a national level to influence rural policy.

Inspire and Promote Innovation across our member organisations through our extensive website, social media and events where we share best rural practice and learn from rural experts.

A summary card of 2024-25 achievements can be found at: https://rsnonline.org.uk/images/documents/rsn-achievements-card-2024-25.pdf and include:

• Widely promoted our Delivering for Rural Campaign
• Supporting the All Party Parliamentary Group on Rural Services with the priorities of the group being: Fair Funding for Rural Services, Affordable Rural Housing, Access to Rural Health and Care Services, Rural Transport and Growing the Rural Economy.
• Campaigned for fairer funding for rural local authorities, responding to Government consultations and sharing briefings with rural MPs as to the impact of the settlement on their local authorities.
• Representing our members on a number of national forums and groups, namely; The Rural Coalition, National Centre for Rural Health and Care, National Rural Crime Network, Rural Homelessness Coalition, National Alliance for Cultural Services, BT Digital Voice Advisory Group, Future of TV Stakeholders Forum, Defra Taskforce and DEFRA Rural Impact Forum.
• Submitting responses to ten Government Consultations to ensure that the rural perspective to these key issues is shared.
• Working with partners to commission research which we have shared with the press and parliamentarians into the potential of the Rural Economy - https://rsnonline.org.uk/rural-economy-a-sleeping-giant-worth-19-billion .
• Hosting the National Rural Conference 24 over the course of 4 days, with 655 delegates from across our membership attending to discuss a wide range of topics affecting rural communities. With 30 expert speakers, and delegates representing 131 organisations, this was the place to discuss rural policy impacting rural local authorities.
• Hosting 8 networking seminars throughout the year with expert speakers attended by over 500 delegates from across our membership.
• Hosted a dedicated event for RSN Local Authority Councillors with BT to upskill themselves about the Digital Switchover of the Telephone Lines, enhancing their community champion role.
• Hosted 4 meetings for our membership to contribute to our campaigning work, and discuss the implications of the Local Government Finance Settlement.
• Delivering the Rural Bulletin to over 20,000 contacts each week with a roundup of key rural news stories.
• Publishing 12 Funding Digest newsletters highlighting many funding and grant opportunities relevant to rural communities.
• Publishing 4 Rural Beacon publications, direct to Councillors at our Local Authority members sharing with them our work.
• Publishing 12 spotlight publications focusing on the Rural Economy Rural Housing and our Rural Services Partnership members.
• Delivering a monthly casebook publication service for members of the Rural Health and Care Alliance.
• Reviewing Government Strategies and White Papers through a ‘rural lens’ to determine the real impact for rural.
• Providing analysis of a range of information for our membership organisations in our Members Insights section of our website. The analysis is available at local authority level and provides a range of statistics that impacts rural authorities in all key areas.