People living in rural areas 'treated like second-class citizens'

Published by Jon Land for 24dash.com in Communities

Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats today said families living in the countryside had been neglected under Labour.

But Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Secretary Hilary Benn insisted unemployment and crime were lower, and school standards higher, outside urban centres.

Mr Benn's Tory shadow Nick Herbert said: "We are the party of the countryside, the party that wants to represent countryside towns and cities and speak to people equally."

He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "People in rural areas have felt they are second-class citizens for the last 13 years."

And Liberal Democrat rural affairs spokesman David Heath told the programme: "Rural areas have been ignored in policy terms for the best part of 30 years.

"The fact is, if you are not very well off in a rural area you will find life very difficult."

Mr Benn stressed: "For people living in rural communities there's lower unemployment and crime and better school results."

He added: "The single most important thing we can do is to sustain the economic recovery."

He criticised Conservative plans for a free vote on whether to repeal the ban on hunting with dogs, saying: "We want to keep the hunting ban in place. This was never a town versus country issue. It's a very simple issue of animal cruelty."

Mr Herbert told Today: "To many people in rural areas this is an important issue but I don't think we should regard it as an overriding issue anywhere - including in rural areas."