A month ago, when Andy Burnham’s succession as Prime Minister had become inevitable, I wrote that the appointments he would make to Defra would go some way towards telling us whether he is going to try to rebuild the government’s relationship with the countryside.

I pointed out that with the exception of the Secretary of State, the then Defra ministerial team all represented completely urban seats and that many of the Labour MPs representing rural constituencies had the necessary skills and ability to serve in government.

This week the Prime Minister has formed what in essence is a new government and one of the Defra ministerial roles has gone to the MP for Suffolk Coastal, Jenny Riddell-Carpenter, who has chaired the Labour Rural Research Group (LRRG) of MPs which has sought to promote a positive policy agenda for rural Britain. A small step perhaps but perhaps a sign that the new Prime Minister and his new Defra Secretary, Angela Eagle, might seek to reset the government’s relationship with the countryside after the disastrous mishandling of rural issues over the last two years. Ms Riddell-Carpenter’s constituency is both rural and coastal and thus represents two of the communities that the new Prime Minister identified as having been neglected in recent decades in the speech he made on being elected as Labour leader.

The LRRG’s first two reports, on rural poverty and the rural economy, contain a host of recommendations that the Burnham government would do well to consider, not least for ‘rural proofing’ to be properly applied in all government departments. Interestingly, the outgoing Defra Secretary, Emma Reynolds, who has returned to the Treasury, also signalled her support for ‘rural impact assessments’ which would involve any formal policy documents sent to ministers having a check box asking civil servants if rural communities have been considered during their review.

The Alliance has been arguing for years that the interests of rural people need to be considered at the start of policy development, rather than as an afterthought, if at all. Again and again, we have seen the consequences for the countryside of policies developed in Whitehall by urban focused politicians and civil servants with no consideration of the partial impact on rural communities.

Junior ministerial appointments and policy development are not the stuff of headlines, but they matter in the way politics really works. If the government is to deliver for all parts of the country, as the new Prime Minister has promised, there are worse places to start than by addressing them.