Countryside Alliance - love the countryside

On Thursday 10th December, the Daily Telegraph published a review of the rural decade. In "The Noughties: Ten years of a labour government have left the countryside more united than ever" Adrian Tierney-Jones wrote: "Rural communities have survived the decade with renewed resolve". The Alliance's Head of Media Tim Bonner observed that it has been a parlous decade due to wrong priorities: "Foot-and-mouth, Bovine TB, post office closures and, of course, the Hunting Act dominated the political agenda when real rural issues like affordable housing, local services and the rural economy should have been the political priorities."

Local Works are the coalition that wrote and successfully campaigned for the Sustainable Communities Act to become law in October 2007. The Act devolves power to local people in order to achieve sustainability in their local areas and combat community decline. They are now campaigning for the Sustainable Communities Act Amendment Bill, which will strengthen the original Act. However, for the Bill to become law they need the support of Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government John Denham MP.

The Countryside Alliance is a key member of the Cut the Vat Coalition, which has been campaigning to ensure that the Government has the freedom to target VAT cuts in the way which will benefit their economies. Reducing VAT from 17.5 per cent to 5 per cent for all maintenance and home improvement work would benefit millions of UK homeowners by helping those who cannot afford vital repairs to their homes, bring empty properties back into use and help the Government achieve its target of cutting carbon emissions by 80 per cent by 2050. We have written to the Treasury, ahead of the budget announcement on the 22nd April, to remind the Chancellor of the economic stimulus a VAT cut on repair, maintenance and improvement work on UK homes would deliver. To read the letter and paper sent to the Treasury please follow the links below.