A report from the Rural Advocate to the Prime Minister in June 2008 estimated the untapped potential from rural business as between GBP 236 billion and GBP 347 billion per annum. This report from the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee focuses on the potential of England's rural economy.

This book reviews governance structures and decentralisation; delivering public services; economic development; and the importance of improving connectivity in rural areas of the UK.

This book examines the transformations of rural society and economy in the UK and US during the last half-century, and explores the significance of these trends and changes for community sustainability, quality of life and the environment. While both the UK and US are highly urbanised, rural people and communities continue to contribute to national identity, economic development and social solidarity, as well as to environmental quality. Contributors explore the degree to which rural people exhibit agency and autonomy, rather than being merely passive in the face of exogenous forces of change in a globalised world. They also illuminate very different policy approaches to rural policy in two advanced capitalist societies often thought to be similar, and show how fundamental differences in rural policy approaches of the US and the UK are based on different social ideologies and values that shape policies relating to rural areas. This book will help to stimulate transatlantic dialogue on rural scholarship and rural policy analysis, while also contributing to theory and policy development. It will be of interest to researchers, students and everyone involved in the policy and practice of rural development.

A practical and theological handbook for rural ministry. Addressing the concerns of rural communities today, it will help you understand key issues in the context of mission and respond both pastorally and prophetically.

In this report MPs recommend changes to the way money from the EU's Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) is used to support hill farmers. Farming, in particular grazing livestock, is an essential part of the landscapes and traditional systems of land management in these beautiful and fragile areas. A return to headage payments in limited circumstances, with appropriate environmental conditions to prevent overstocking, would provide fairer funding to hill farmers. The Committee also calls on the Government to do more to enable hill farmers to diversify into other land management activities-such as carbon storage and water quality schemes. The report calls on the Government to demonstrate a stronger commitment to upland communities. Having abolished the Commission for Rural Communities - the public body that advised Government on rural issues -the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs must ensure that rural policies and their delivery are not neglected. Ministers should: publish a strategy for the uplands that sets out a clear action plan with practical measures to be implemented immediately; provide strong leadership to make sure that rural and upland communities get a fair deal; create a statutory definition of the uplands to assist in targeting policy; ensure all farmers and rural communities can get access to development grants once RDAs have been abolished; work across Government to put in place policies that support those that live and work in the uplands, in particular rolling out super-fast broadband for remote rural communities and increasing the availability of affordable housing.

Every year some 330 million tonnes of waste are produced in the UK. The direct costs of managing this waste-£2.5 billion annually for English household waste alone-are dwarfed by the costs of using new resources to replace discarded materials. The Government should, as a priority, set out a timetable with significantly raised targets for reducing the total amount of waste produced. The waste strategy focuses disproportionately on domestic waste, which contributes less than 10 per cent of all waste, while omitting firm targets for the commercial and industrial sectors which produce around a quarter of all waste. Defra must rectify this urgently. Funding cuts to services designed to help businesses manage their waste well are premature and should be re-evaluated and ways to extend such services to a wider range of organisations should be considered. Far too small a proportion of waste is re-used, recycled, composted or used to produce energy. Nearly half of all waste is still sent to landfill sites where it contributes to climate change, producing 3 per cent of the country's greenhouse gases and 40 per cent of its methane emissions. The Committee notes the so-called "Primark effect" which has led to large increases in the amount of clothing sent to landfill sites. Food waste is another significant component of waste sent to landfill sites and householders, food producers and retailers need to do more to reduce the amount of food discarded unnecessarily. Waste should only be used for energy recovery if it is not possible to re-use, recycle or compost it.

Changes in economic activities across 542 parishes from the beginning of national marriage registration in 1538.