Modernising Rural Delivery (MRD)

Background
Through the MRD programme, Defra set out to implement the Rural Strategy 2004, which was the Government’s response to Lord Haskins’ review of rural delivery.

Lord Haskins’ report, published in November 2003, contained a series of recommendations under five main headings:

• Improve accountability through a clearer separation of responsibility for policy and delivery functions.
• Bring delivery closer to the customer by devolving greater power to regional and local organisations to deliver economic and social policy.
• Develop a more integrated approach to sustainable land management by rationalising agencies with overlapping agendas.
• Improve the co-ordination of delivery by enhancing the role of the Government Offices for the Regions as co-ordinators and monitors.
• Make things better for the customer and get greater value for money for the taxpayer through a more integrated approach to regulation and through simpler services.

The MRD programme has now drawn to a close, and a report on progress against all the commitments was issued on 28 July 2006. The full report and a summary can be accessed here. During the programme Defra has also issued a series of newsletters, which can be accessed here.

Rural White Paper Review
In parallel with Lord Haskins' Review, a review was conducted to assess progress on the 2000 Rural White Paper. The Review indentified some successes from the original White Paper, and was used to develop the Government's Rural Strategy.

The Rural Strategy for England 2004
Margaret Beckett presented the new Rural Strategy to the House of Commons on Wednesday 21st July 2004. It set out the key priorities for rural policy for the next few years and specific actions to drive progress forward. Details of the Strategy, including a set of fact sheets, can be found on the Defra website.

The Natural Environment and Rural Communities Act implements some key elements of the Strategy. It received Royal Assent on 30 March 2006. Actions under the Strategy include setting up Natural England and the Commission for Rural Communities (see What’s New ), the development of regional Rural Delivery Frameworks, and the operation of Rural Pathfinders.

West Midlands Rural Delivery Framework (WMRDF)
The Rural Strategy focuses on the development of Rural Delivery Frameworks as the primary means whereby decision-making, setting priorities and service delivery will be devolved to regional and local levels.

The Government Office for the West Midlands was tasked with brokering with partners the WMRDF.  On behalf of partners the Rural Accord has taken the role of steering the development of the Framework.  Following intensive consultation, the first iteration of the Framework was produced in April 2006. Rural Accord has now placed it on the website.

The WMRDF identifies six priorities for rural delivery in the region:

• Enhancing the value of the countryside.
• Developing a diverse and dynamic business base.
• Improving learning and skills.
• Creating the conditions for growth.
• Achieving fair access to services for all.
• Securing vibrant, active, inclusive and sustainable communities.

The Framework is a live document, and is expected to evolve as conditions and priorities change. It will be affected by the current review processes of the Regional Economic Strategy and the Regional Spatial Strategy, as well as feeding into them.

Rural Pathfinder
As part of the Rural Strategy 2004, a pathfinder was designated in each English region to explore practical ways of improving local delivery, and tackling disadvantage and social exclusion .

The West Midlands pathfinder is based in Shropshire. The current work plan and news of recent developments can be found on the Rural Pathfinder and Beacon website. This contains a link to a series of newsletters and case studies.

West Midlands Rural Accord
The Rural Accord, grouping officers from public sector bodies, has been in existence since 2001. For more information, visit the Rural Accord site.

Rural and urban definitions
A collaboration betwen ONS, ODPM, Countryside Agency, DEFRA and National Assembly for Wales has produced new definitions of what constitutes rural and urban. The objective of the collaboration was to produce a standard definition of rural areas and small towns, which could over time be adopted as a National Statistics classification for use across Government and for general purposes. Compared with previous definitions it makes the distinction between rural and urban areas clearer and distinguishes between different types of urban and rural areas. It also makes it possible to integrate a wide range of other data with the new definition more easily. The new definition also makes it possible to analyse data for rural areas at a number of geographic scales including settlements, Census Output Areas and electoral wards.

Full details can be found on the Office of National Statistics website here.