Peter Couchman, Chief Executive of the Plunkett Foundation, said:
“There are great expectations for change from the new government. This combined with the public sector finance squeeze means that there are huge challenges ahead.
"Both the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats have included fantastic commitments for support community activity as a way of improving people’s lives and we believe that the Right to Try for rural communities is a tool that can be used to achieve this.
"The Right to Try for rural communities through community-ownership to take control of the issues affecting them is a model which has been increasingly used to save vital services threatened with closure or withdrawal such as village shops, pubs and transport schemes.
"There is also growing interest from rural communities in using this approach to introduce what are increasingly becoming essential services and assets in a rural community such as broadband, renewable energy or affordable housing.
"We have seen that community-ownership provides a solution that works for rural communities and we look forward to working with the new government to take forward the Right to Try for rural communities.”