The Liberal Democrats must turn their growing representation in rural Britain into a coherent policy offer if they are to win the confidence of the countryside, party activists heard at a Countryside Alliance event at the party's conference yesterday evening (21 September).
The panel discussion, chaired by Countryside Alliance Director of Policy Sarah Lee, brought together Alistair Carmichael MP, Chair of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee, Dr Roz Savage MP, and Sarah Dyke MP, the Liberal Democrat Rural Affairs Spokesperson.
Opening the discussion, Sarah Lee highlighted the Alliance's newly launched Campaign for the Countryside, which has identified 27 government policies since the 2024 election that are harmful to the countryside. She asked whether the Liberal Democrats could bring their rural policies together into a coherent offer capable of engaging rural communities.
Alistair Carmichael said there was an opportunity for the Liberal Democrats to establish themselves as a party with a strong understanding of rural Britain, but cautioned against claiming to be the party of the countryside. Rural communities needed plurality of political representation, he said.
Mr Carmichael joined the Alliance call for a “reset” in government's attitude towards rural communities, based on respect and a better understanding of the contribution made by rural businesses, farmers and crofters to the wider economy. He argued that sustainable farming could play an important role in restoring nature while continuing to produce food.
He also called on the Liberal Democrats to bring together existing work on issues including the Land Use Framework and the farming review into a coherent rural policy vision.
Dr Roz Savage said that, despite her relatively recent move to the countryside, she had become a “zealous convert” and had spent considerable time speaking to farmers facing what she described as existential concerns about the future of their businesses.
She criticised what she saw as a siloed approach to rural and environmental policy, arguing that farming and nature should be considered together. She highlighted regenerative farming, improved soils and better water retention as examples of where environmental and agricultural objectives could reinforce one another.
Dr Savage also called for greater recognition of local knowledge in policymaking, arguing that too many decisions were made in Westminster and Whitehall without sufficient consultation with the people who understand rural areas on the ground. She stressed the importance of long-term resilience in the face of flooding, drought and the growing pressures of climate change.
Sarah Dyke argued that the Liberal Democrats already had a strong claim to being the party of the countryside, pointing to the party's 44 rural MPs following the general election.
She focused particularly on the “rural premium” – the additional costs faced by people living in rural areas – and the interconnected challenges of housing, transport, services and digital connectivity. She called for rural communities to be prioritised in addressing these gaps.
Farming is central to the rural economy, she argued, but farmers face a series of pressures, including the family farm tax, agricultural land being lost to development, uncertainty over support schemes and the impact of international trade agreements.
Ms Dyke set out a range of Liberal Democrat proposals, including pausing the family farm tax pending an independent assessment, increasing Environmental Land Management funding, protecting agricultural land and making greater use of public-sector purchasing power to support homegrown food.
Questions from the floor covered issues ranging from the proposed tourist tax and rural housing to healthcare, wildfire management, Natural England, broadband and mobile connectivity, river management and on-farm reservoirs.
A recurring theme was the need for rural communities to be treated as partners in developing policy rather than as passive recipients of decisions made elsewhere.
For the Countryside Alliance, the discussion demonstrated both the depth of the challenges facing rural Britain and the growing political interest in addressing them. The Alliance will continue to engage with politicians across the political spectrum to ensure that rural communities' concerns are heard and properly reflected in government policy.