The Countryside Alliance is calling for a “rural reset” with government after identifying 27 policies it says have hit farmers, rural businesses and countryside communities since 2024. 

Earlier this week (Monday 14 September), the Countryside Alliance hosted a landmark event in Westminster, bringing together senior politicians, including former Prime Minister Lord Cameron and Labour grandee Lord Blunkett, and rural representatives to launch its Campaign for the Countryside, calling on the government to reset its relationship with rural Britain. The event was widely covered by the national media.

Tim Bonner, Chief Executive of the Countryside Alliance, said:

“The timing of this campaign and event is significant. After two years where an unprecedented range of government policies have left rural people feeling under attack, a new Prime Minister provides an opportunity for the government to reset its relationship with rural Britain and recognise the contribution the countryside can make to the whole country.”

“Rural people are not asking government to solve every problem overnight. They are asking to be heard, understood and treated fairly.”

“It is time to treat the countryside as part of the solution to a united Britain, not a problem or an afterthought. We are asking the government to work with rural communities, not against them. Now is the time for a rural reset.”

The 27 harmful UK government policies the Countryside Alliance have identified are as follows:

1.   Changes to Agricultural Property Relief and Business Property Relief 

   100% relief now only applies to the first £2.5 million of combined agricultural and business assets, with assets above £2.5 million receives a reduced relief rate of 50%, exposing those excess assets to an effective 20% IHT rate. The threshold has been raised from the original £1 million threshold initially announced at the 2024 Budget. The policy threatens the inter-generational viability of family farms.

2.  Closure and subsequent redesign of the Sustainable Farming Incentive 

   On 11 March 2025, Defra and the Rural Payments Agency (RPA) unexpectedly closed the SFI 2024 (SFI24) scheme to all new applicants with immediate effect. The sudden shutdown left thousands of farmers in limbo. Following legal pressure from the NFU, there was a partial U-turn in May 2025, granting a limited application window for roughly 3,000 farmers who had begun but not submitted paperwork before the closure.

3. Higher employer National Insurance contributions 

   The main rate of employer NICs rose from 13.8% to 15.0% from April 2026 while the secondary threshold (the earnings level where employers start paying NICs) dropped from £9,100 to £5,000 per year. This has specific impacts on small rural, seasonal and hospitality businesses; rural businesses have a lower average turnover per worker (£158,000) compared to urban businesses (£242,000).

4. Large increases in the National Living Wage 

   The National Living Wage rates rose to £12.71 per hour for workers aged 21 and over starting 1 April 2026, up 50p or 4.1%, with larger percentage increases at lower ages. This also has specific impacts on small rural, seasonal and hospitality businesses.

5. Employment Rights Act 2025 impacts on seasonal labour costs 

   Increases seasonal labour costs by expanding mandatory worker benefits, tightening scheduling rules, and removing historical exemptions for low-earning or temporary staff.

6. Mandatory housing targets and planning reform 

   The County Councils Network warns that new top-down rules weaken local democratic control over where houses go. Local authorities are pushed to approve new housing on the edges of small towns and villages, ignoring local infrastructure limits.

7. “Grey belt” and Green Belt development with associated threat to villages 

   Proposals for targeted development on lower-quality Green Belt land have created concern that rural villages face an unprecedented wave of edge-of-settlement housing expansion. 

8. Planning and Infrastructure Act – accelerated electricity infrastructure development 

   The Act seeks to accelerate electricity infrastructure development by overhauling the Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects (NSIP) consenting process and streamlining grid connections, risking growing pressure on agricultural land from solar farms.

9. Clean Power 2030: expansion of onshore wind and solar 

   The overall policy position in favour of expanding onshore wind and solar further increases pressure on agricultural land.

10. Land Use Framework for England – pressures on farmland 

    England’s Land Use Framework seeks to direct about 15% of current farmed acreage toward environmental, energy and development uses. The pledge to maintain overall food production is dependent on theoretical improvements in productivity.

11. Land Use Framework for England – proposed licensing of shooting 

    The document raises the importance of “multifunctional” land that delivers benefits in more areas than one, but says that because of unspecified “trade-offs”, land managed for shooting has a limited ability to do so. However, shoots nearly always coexist with agriculture and land management techniques that support game shooting also fulfil a vital conservation function. A still more restrictive approach would undermine the economic, social and conservation contribution from well-managed shooting. It announced a Call for Evidence launched on 4 September.

12. Increased restrictions on heather burning over deep peat 

    The depth definition of ‘deep peat’ has been reduced from 40cm to 30cm, extending the ban on burning from 220,000 hectares to 676,628 hectares, which has damaged the viability of affected shooting estates and raised the risk of wildfire.

13. Full cost recovery for firearms licensing 

    Fees rose significantly in February 2025 (by between 133% to 157% depending on the certificate type). A further 3% CPI inflation increase went into effect on June 4, 2026.

14. Electric Vehicle Excise Duty proposal disregards elevated rural mileage 

    Official Department for Transport figures show that people in rural England travel substantially further each year than those living in urban areas. In some rural areas, the average annual distance travelled per resident exceeds 9,000 miles, compared with around 5,500 to 6,500 miles in urban areas. Basing eVED strictly on mileage while taking no account of rurality disproportionately affects rural communities. 

15. Double-cab pickup tax changes 

    HMRC tax changes for double cab pickups reclassified double-cab pickup trucks as cars rather than commercial vans starting in April 2025, meaning that employees face significantly higher annual income tax bills for personal use, despite the importance of this vehicle type in numerous rural occupations. 

16. Limiting the scope of the Equipment Theft (Prevention) Act 2023 

    While the original Equipment Theft (Prevention) Act 2023 framework gave ministers broad powers to mandate immobilisers, forensic marking, and registration databases across multiple sectors, the Home Office explicitly scaled back these measures by excluding mandatory engine immobilisers and narrowing the categories of equipment covered under forthcoming secondary legislation. This will limit its effectiveness in preventing rural crime.

17. Proposed ban on trail hunting 

    Consultation ran from 26 March to 18 June and focused exclusively on how to implement a ban on trail hunting, not considering whether it was advisable to do so. A ban would impact the lives and livelihoods of those involved in the activity and is not a priority for the countryside.

18. Proposed ban on ‘snare traps’ 

    The commitment was made in the Animal Welfare Strategy and is expected to be subject to a forthcoming consultation. It is unclear whether any proposed ban will include modern humane restraints (HRs). Their inclusion would remove an important pest control mechanism from the toolkit of farmers, gamekeepers and land managers.

19. Local government reorganisation and English devolution threatens de-emphasising rural areas within larger strategic authorities 

    Under the current wave of local government reorganisation, 134 traditional county and district councils are being streamlined into 38 larger unitary authorities, with a target benchmark population of 500,000 residents per council. This naturally shifts democratic weight toward denser urban or suburban clusters, potentially leaving rural electorates outvoted on critical local decisions.

20. Police reform proposals as per 19 

    The current 43-force model in England is proposed to be merged into as few as 12 large forces. Absorbing diverse counties into massive regional blocks risks pulling focus and funding away from small communities to handle volume crime in major urban hubs.

21. Business rates changes affecting rural hospitality and retail (since ameliorated for pubs) 

    From April 2026, the UK business rates system underwent structural changes that withdrew the temporary 40% Retail, Hospitality, and Leisure (RHL) relief scheme, replacing it with a new permanent five-multiplier system. While the system slashed or froze bills specifically for pubs and live music venues following heavy sector pushback, wider rural retail, hotels, and restaurants face steep net cost increases due to simultaneous property revaluations. 

22.  Abolition of the £110 million Rural Services Delivery Grant from 2025-26 

    The Provisional Local Government Finance Settlement 2025 to 2026 confirmed the abolition and repurposing of the £110 million Rural Services Delivery Grant (RSDG) starting in the 2025-26 financial year. Funds were shifted towards areas with higher deprivation, higher overall service demands, and acute pressures in children’s and adult social care. This result in a further of funds from many more rural areas.

23. Removal of the Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme and associated impacts on rural churches

    The UK Government permanently closed the Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme (LPWGS) on March 31, 2026, forcing all listed churches to absorb a 20% VAT charge on maintenance and repair work. The replacement program, the Places of Worship Renewal Fund, operates as a competitive capital grant scheme managed by Historic England rather than a broad VAT-relief system, making support harder for isolated rural churches to secure. The value of the LPWGS was also cut for its final year from historical levels of £30-42 million to £23 million, a level that has been retained for the replacement fund.

24. Cabinet Office strategic procurement sectors exclude food and farming

    A Cabinet Office list of “industries that matter most to our national security” and will be supported by changes to procurement rules. It consisted of steel, shipbuilding, energy infrastructure and AI but excluded food and farming, despite repeated government declarations that “food security is national security”.

25. Permitting the Gambling Commission to press ahead with affordability checks despite concern over threats to Horserace Betting Levy funding

    The Horserace Betting Levy is paid by bookmakers and contributes to grassroots racing, a pursuit of importance to rural economies across the country. The Gambling Commission’s Financial Risk Assessments, known as affordability checks, have been said by the British Horseracing Authority to threaten millions in revenue and the wider economy of the sport. While the implementation of the policy is a matter for the Gambling Commission, it is a UK government body and the government has taken a supportive stance towards its work in this area.

26. Proposal of greater alignment of shotgun licensing requirements with those for Section 1 firearms

    British firearms legislation is among the most stringent in the world. Full alignment would bestow a considerable additional administrative burden on police firearms licensing units, which are already stretched to capacity. This may prove detrimental to their ability to uphold public safety whilst delivering a satisfactory service. In a parliamentary debate in February 2024, the proposal faced widespread criticism from across the political spectrum.

27.  Withdrawal of GL45 and NE approach to licensing gamebird release on SPAs

    The General Licence GL45 was withdrawn by Defra due to ongoing concerns over Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) spreading to protected wild bird populations. However, following a major legal challenge by the British Association for Shooting and Conservation (BASC), the High Court ruled in July 2026 that Natural England’s restrictive licensing conditions were unlawful and irrational.