With the General Election campaign now in full swing, the Arsyllfa team have taken a look at the manifestos of the main parties in order to see what they have to say about the countryside and the rural economy. Over the next weeks we will be taking a look at what each of the parties who are standing candidates in Wales have to say and will be outlining their proposals for the countryside and agriculture, as well rural poverty, services and the rural economy.
Here we will take a quick glance at some of the main proposals of the Conservative manifesto. Included in their manifesto are the following policies:
- Promoting rural communities and supporting farmers by setting legally binding targets and further investment to ensure food security. These targets will be relevant for the whole of the UK.
- Launch a Food Security Index in order to aid decision making as to where to best allocate the farming budget.
- An increase in £1 billion in the farming budget over the course of the Parliament, promising to meet increases in inflation each year.
- Continue to ringfence the farming budget so that money is directly transferred to rural communities in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
- An Agricultural Innovation Fund worth £20 million.
- Protect the best farmland from solar farm development that can affect the ability to produce food.
- Continue the moratorium on fracking in the UK.
- Ensure better dental provision in rural communities by providing financial incentives for dentists to work in these areas as well as providing dentistry vans that will be able to travel to more remote areas to provide dental services. There is also a promise to train more NHS staff in rural areas.
- Invest in new technology to ensure that fast broadband internet is available in the most remote areas.
Clearly many of the above proposals are ones that belong to devolved areas and so are not necessarily directly relevant to Welsh voters. However, it will be interesting to see what the effect of any policies that the next UK Government in Westminster adopt on how the Welsh Government operates, and if any increase in funding in certain areas allow similar changes in Wales.
For more information regarding what exactly the Conservative manifesto offers, follow this link to read the document in its entirety.
