This will help ensure the future sustainability of the Post Office network and has the potential to provide access to essential services such as bank accounts, savings and loans to financially excluded people in rural areas.

Only 1 in 8 banks and building societies are located in rural areas although a fifth of the population live there. We hope today’s announcement will also prompt the exploration of partnerships between the Post Office and credit unions to assist financial inclusion in rural areas.

Read the full Government announcement

Their report recognises that many rural properties are hard to heat and to insulate but points out that nearly 75% of households helped by Warm Front are not in fuel poverty. Although 28% of those in fuel poverty live in rural communities, Warm Front is only reaching 15% of rural fuel poor households.

"The situation is very concerning. We fully support the Committee’s recommendation that the targeting of Warm Front is improved to reach more of those in fuel poverty"

“We are anxious to see that the review of Warm Front by the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) recognises that:

• there are particular problems and challenges for hard to heat homes in rural areas

• there are additional fuel costs faced by many rural households, including those using LPG and domestic heating oil
  

• a high proportion of rural households are not eligible for dual-fuel discounts"

Download the full press release welcoming the report

Financial exclusion is a real challenge in rural areas:

• Over 200,000 people living in rural communities have no access to a bank account of any kind

• 250,000 people have no local access to either a post office, bank or building society or cash machine

• Demand for affordable credit and debt advice is outstripping supply

Despite these significant challenges, financially excluded people living in rural areas are less visible and more difficult to reach than those in urban areas.

'Rural Money Matters':

• provides a comprehensive overview describing the challenges and opportunities rural financial inclusion presents

• identifies financial exclusion ‘hot spots’ and clearly presents the scale and depth of the challenge

• demonstrates ways to promote financial inclusion in through case studies highlighting good practice

• helps policy makers and programmers 'rural proof' their work on financial inclusion by considering and addressing rural circumstances

The Guide has been produced jointly with DWP’s Now Let’s Talk Money initiative, with the support of the Legal Services Research Centre, Experian Ltd, Citizens Advice and a broad range of local partner organisations.

“The economic downturn is bringing in to sharp focus the need for rural people to be able to get the right financial advice at the right time. 'Rural Money Matters' provides practical advice and solutions based on the experiences of individuals and organisations around the country."

Read the full press release

Download ‘Rural Money Matters: A Support Guide to Rural Financial Inclusion’

To support the 'Rural Money Matters' guide we've produced the latest in our State of the Countryside Updates, providing statistical analysis of the scale and depth of rural financial inclusion.

Download 'State of the Countryside Update: Financial Inclusion'

Access to cash is a significant problem, especially for elderly and more vulnerable people, or where there is more limited access to transport.

A Post Bank would build on the welcome decision by the Government to award the Post Office a further contract until 2015 for the Post Office Card Account, which already provides for the payment in cash of pensions and other benefits.

The Government wants to provide children and young people with the best start in life and break cycles of deprivation for good. The Government's ambitious pledge in 1999 to end child poverty by 2020 has already led to 600,000 fewer children in poverty in the UK. While good progress has been made, 2.9 million children remain in poverty.

We're highlighting some of the rural issues surrounding child poverty in our response to the consultation.

Read our full response to the consultation

The programme ‘Spotlight on Fuel Poverty’ is funded by the Department of Energy and Climate Change and ScottishPower and is running from October 2008 – March 2009 in each of the nine English regions.

Visit the NEA website to find out more

The FSA are looking to work in partnership with organisations in the North East and North West of England on a pilot money guidance Pathfinder programme to promote financial capability in rural areas.

The FSA’s money guidance Pathfinder is a new and exciting opportunity to help people cope during the recession. It aims to give 750,000 people the confidence and capability to make the most of their money – now and in the future.

1. Organisations agree to direct individuals to the money guidance service in order to improve their financial capability.
   

2. Organisations take a more active step and refer existing clients to the money guidance service.
   

3. Organisations become full programme partners and receive funding to provide financial capability training and money guidance in rural areas.
   

Find out more about the FSA's money guidance pathfinder

Download a presentation about the programme

To find out more about becoming a partner, contact Warren Davis, FSA Money Guidance team, on 0207 066 3644.

• Access to cash is a major problem. Around 300,000 people in rural England don't have a bank account

• only around one in eight banks and building societies are in rural areas, though a fifth of the population live there

• Less than 10% of all cash points are sited in rural areas and only 46% of these are free to use

The Post Office network has become an increasingly important means of addressing financial exclusion in rural areas. Allowing post offices to act more like banks would double the number of outlets and provide banking services to communities currently without provision.

There's also a case for post offices to become an outlet for local credit unions. Credit unions offer an alternative to mainstream financial institutions and provide local access to affordable credit and savings. This is particularly significant in the current economic downturn where there is a general reduction of credit and tighter lending terms.

To ensure the long term-sustainability of rural credit unions it will be important to develop their reach and capacity. A partnership with post offices would increase credit union coverage and help those in rural communities currently without access to mainstream banking services.

Find out more about our work on financial inclusion in rural areas

He's written to Ed Miliband and Hilary Benn to outline his concern at the rising cost of heating rural  homes for those not on mains gas and having to rely on more expensive oil or Liquid Petroleum Gas.

Mr Lamb was responding to our recent call for:

• The sale of domestic fuel oil and LPG to be regulated equally within the domestic energy market

• Robust social tariffs for domestic fuel oil and LPG to be introduced to alleviate fuel poverty.

• The Warm Front scheme to be made more flexible in respect of rural areas because many rural homes are unsuitable for the forms of assistance currently available - notably some loft and cavity wall insulation.

Read Mr Lamb’s statement

Richard Burge, one of our Commissioners, will visit projects and meet representatives from local authorities and other bodies working to address rural fuel poverty.

"I am looking forward to visiting the Ribble Valley to see the progress that is being made to tackle rural fuel poverty. People in rural areas face many of the same causes of fuel poverty as their urban counterparts but there are also some additional challenges, especially the high cost of alternative fuels such as oil or bottled gas."

High fuel prices are hitting rural areas hardest, particularly in lower-income households. The 42% of rural homes not connected to mains gas have to rely on more expensive fuels and are not eligible for ‘dual fuel’ discounts.

A third of rural homes have solid walls which are much more costly to insulate.

The visit coincides with the final week of the annual Warm Homes campaign, organised by National Energy Action, to highlight the plight of the 5.4 million households in the UK who cannot afford to heat their homes.

Read the full press release

Rural people have to rely more on oil or bottled gas for heating but costs have doubled over the past year. 42% of rural homes are not connected to mains gas so ‘dual fuel’ discounts are not available to many rural residents.

A third of homes in rural areas have solid walls compared with 26% in urban areas. These cost more to insulate but just 10% of Warm Front grants go to rural areas. Pension credit is a key eligibility criterion for grants but our State of the Countryside Update shows 250,000 eligible pensioners in rural areas aren’t claiming pension credit.

We're continuing our work to highlight and help improve the situation. We're hosting the Rural Financial Inclusion Champion, one of DWP's Financial Inclusion Champions, helping people who are disadvantaged by lack of access to financial services.

At yesterday's event delegates met the people running the projects featured in our good practice case studies, and heard speakers including Nigel Kershaw from Big Issue Invest, James Plaskitt MP of DWP and Eric Leenders of the BBA.

Find out more about the event, and download the presentations and workshop write-ups

Find out more about our work on financial inclusion

We'd like to thank all the projects and speakers who took part in the event, and all the delegates who attended.

Our Quids In Symposium gave delegates the opportunity to see and hear about projects which are already changing people's lives. They also met the people running the projects and heard some inspiring speakers.

Download the programme

Presentations

Debt Rescue & Money Advice (DRAMA)

Farm Crisis Network (FCN)

Now Let's Talk Money

Just Credit Union

D£von Pound (Southwest Pound)

Tackley Village Shop & Post Office

Charity Bank

Workshop Write-ups

Debt Rescue & Money Advice (DRAMA)

Farm Crisis Network (FCN)

Now Let's Talk Money

Ely Citizens Advice Bureau

D£von Pound (Southwest Pound)

Tackley Village Shop & Post Office

Charity Bank

Just Credit Union

Find out more about some of our speakers

Download our Quids In summary report

Read some of the good practice case studies

Find out more about our work on financial inclusion

Our new summary report 'Financial Inclusion: Boosting rural communities' and case studies present projects which succeed by involving the community in developing innovative ways of reaching out to help people.

These schemes assist people to be ‘quids in’ by providing access to financial advice and to financial services.

Download the summary report

Read the case studies

Find out more about our work on financial inclusion

The programme covered his visit to Devon last week to investigate financial inclusion in rural areas.

You can watch the programme on the BBC Politics Show website