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We've prepared this paper of our views to help Defra and others with an interest in 'rural' to think about how this can be best managed, nationally regionally and locally, in the future.

Defra has been reviewing all its activities and policies. This includes the ‘governance architecture’ introduced by the Rural White Paper 2000, the Rural Strategy 2004, and the Modernising Rural Delivery review 2003–06. An important part of the review has been looking at the experience of, and further prospects for rural proofing (taking rural needs and circumstances into account when developing policies and delivering programmes), and mainstreaming (considering rural circumstances as part of everyday policy making, and not separately, throughout government).

We hope this paper will be a useful contribution to Defra's thinking as it deals with the future place of 'rural' within Government. Likewise, we hope this paper will be helpful to Regional Rural Affairs Forums, local authorities and other regional and local organisations as they deal with these challenging issues and questions.

We'd like to encourage you to tell us what you think about this paper and the ideas in it. Use the comments box below to tell us what you think