The government published a strategy for simplifying rules and cutting red tape for farmers.
Source: Partners for Success: A farm regulation and charging strategy, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (08459 556000)
Links: Strategy | DEFRA press release
Date: 2005-Nov
A report by a committee of MPs highlighted lessons to be learned from the 2001 foot-and-mouth crisis.
Source: Foot and Mouth Disease: Applying the lessons, Ninth Report (Session 2005-06), HC 563, House of Commons Public Accounts Select Committee, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Report
Date: 2005-Nov
A think-tank report said that tourism employed more people in the rural economy than agriculture, and that the agricultural sector itself had become much more diverse: but government bodies charged with delivering countryside policy often seemed to treat the rural economy and the traditional agriculture sector as synonymous.
Source: Berkeley Hill et al., The New Rural Economy: Change, dynamism and government policy, Institute of Economic Affairs (020 7799 8900)
Date: 2005-Nov
A report explored the potential for home-based businesses to create wealth and employment in rural areas.
Source: Tim Dwelly, Kath Maguire and Frances Truscott, Under the Radar: Tracking and supporting rural home-based business, Commission for Rural Communities, available from Live Work Network (020 7766 8866)
Links: Summary | Guardian report
Date: 2005-Aug
A report by a committee of MPs said that more government support and funding should be directed at small and medium-sized family farm businesses.
Source: Helping Farm Businesses in England, Twelfth Report (Session 2004-05), HC 441, House of Commons Public Accounts Select Committee, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Report
Date: 2005-Apr
A position statement by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs set out how social enterprise was contributing to its objectives, and how it planned to support the social enterprise sector.
Source: Defra and Social Enterprise: A position statement, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (08459 556000)
Links: Statement (pdf)
Date: 2005-Mar