Rural communities should have the Right to Try to take control of the issues important to them through community-ownership. This was the message from Rural Communities - The Right to Try, a Plunkett Foundation conference held on 27th January in London.
Peter Couchman, Chief Executive of the Plunkett Foundation
Peter Couchman, Chief Executive Officer of the Plunkett Foundation said: “Rural communities want to take ownership of the issues affecting them but are often prevented from doing so because of barriers around a lack of rights and a lack of support. We are exploring why and how these barriers must be removed, to enable more communities to take control of what matters most to them, through community-ownership.”
Jim Paice MP
Keynote speaker Jim Paice, Shadow Minister for Agriculture and Rural Affairs said: “The Right to Try is about unlocking the enterprise spirit in communities and we must tailor local communities to local problems. He also said: “Right to Try is a new direction. Rural values of enterprise and independent innovation is much more durable than any amount of public money, endorsed by public spirit.”
Labour and Co-operative Party MP Alun Michael, a keynote speaker at the event and Vice President of the Local Government Association said: “We need to bridge the gap between rich and poor and to connect people living and working in rural communities, and, those who ‘want’ to live in rual areas but for reasons such as a lack of affordable housing can’t. Social enterprise therefore is part of the solution.” He also said: “The principal of ‘Right to Try’ moves us out of the comfort zone and asks what do we need to do to sustain our communities and to make them better places to live in?”
Key areas highlighted at the event were the need for better business advice on social enterprise, better powers for purchasing community assets and the need for changes to legislation to support co-operatives and social enterprises. An action plan identifying key elements of the conference will also be published shortly by the Plunkett Foundation and available online.
Thank you to everyone who attended the event and also all speakers, workshop facilitators and exhibitors. We would also like to thank the Post Office, the Big Lottery Fund and the Office of the Third Sector for sponsorsing the event.
For further information on the event visit http://www.plunkett.co.uk/whatwedo/righttotry.cfm, email info@plunkett.co.uk or call 01993 810730