Stuart Burgess
Chairman and Rural Advocate
Stuart Burgess chairs the Commission for Rural Communities having been Chairman of the Countryside Agency, and the Government’s Rural Advocate, since 2004. For 15 years he was a regional, national and international Church leader in the Methodist Church, including President of the Methodist Church of Great Britain in the millennium year. He has represented the Church at national level with government and ecumenical partners.
He is a member of the ethics committee for the Department of Work and Pensions, the BMA Patient Liaison Group (2004-07), and of the University Court of Nottingham. He has been involved in rural and social regeneration in the East Riding and North Yorkshire and is co-author of a study booklet on the countryside entitled "Presence".
Cancellation of debt for poor countries is important to him and to this end he has worked with the Presidents of Zambia and Malawi, the IMF, the World Bank and the Treasury.
He has also worked with the Metropolitan Commissioner of police, Sir John Stevens, arranging conferences around the theme "safer neighbourhoods" in the London Boroughs. In addition he now chairs the Inter-Faith group for the Metropolitan Police and the 'Safer Neighbourhoods Scheme' for the London Boroughs.
Rural Advocate
As Chairman and Rural Advocate, Dr Stuart Burgess leads the Commission for Rural Communities in our efforts to persuade Government to take account of the particular characteristics of rural areas (such as levels of disadvantage, the sparse population, the lack of local services, distance from the main centres of population, limited public transport, the absence of large scale businesses etc.) when making and implementing policies.
Email Stuart at info@ruralcommunities.gov.uk