Policy paper

The government’s approach to rural proofing, 2025

Published 15 May 2025

Applies to England

About rural proofing

Government has made a commitment that all policy decision-making should be rural proofed.

Rural proofing is assessing what might affect outcomes in rural areas and adjusting policies or policy delivery when appropriate and practicable. Rural proofing ensures that rural areas are not overlooked and that the intended outcomes are deliverable in rural areas.

Upon its election, the current Labour Government announced that it was taking a new, mission-led approach to leading the country and bringing about change. There are 5 missions which collectively set out the changes that are planned. There is no specific rural mission – but rural areas are affected by each of the missions in turn. 

To ensure these missions are rural proofed, and to assess how they might affect outcomes in rural areas, Defra has established a new Rural Taskforce to lead on this important work.

The importance of rural proofing

Rural areas are important economically and socially. Nearly 1 in 5 people live in rural areas with over 550,000 businesses contributing over £315 billion (16%) to the English economy. In around 1 in 5 rural areas median house prices are more than 12 times average earnings. Nearly 14% of rural households are living in fuel poverty.

Those who live in rural areas should expect the same living standards as those in towns and cities – access to good-quality public services, decent connectivity, good local schools and healthcare, safe communities and quality jobs.

However, what works in a town or city may be difficult to implement in a rural area, and policies may need to be tailored to take account of smaller, more dispersed communities, an ageing society and greater travel distances.

Responsibility for rural proofing

Defra leads on rural proofing, but it is the responsibility of all Whitehall departments whose policies affect rural areas. For its part, Defra supports the delivery of rural proofing through advocacy, providing data and evidence, and through its links with rural organisations.

To improve outcomes for those in rural areas, all government departments need to assess:

• financial allocations – to ensure that funding formulae reflect the costs of service delivery and needs in rural areas
• investment decisions – to ensure that rural businesses can thrive
• service delivery – to ensure that rural needs have been assessed

How policy makers can apply rural proofing to their work

Rural proofing is a process that policy makers need to deploy when developing policy and decision making, to ensure that proper consideration of rural areas is made. When undertaking rural proofing, some of the questions that policy makers could ask are:

• What are the intended policy outcomes being developed?
• How might outcomes differ between rural and urban areas?
• How could the intended outcomes be delivered in rural areas?
• What are the potential issues and challenges for delivery in rural areas?
• How might the situation differ between different types of rural area?
• What data is available that would evidence this?
• What are the rural target areas and how might they be affected or disadvantaged by our decision-making?

Should the answers demonstrate that rural areas may be disadvantaged by policy proposals, this may indicate the need for policy makers to consider a different approach in rural areas to avoid disadvantage or unintended policy outcomes.

Find out more about rural proofing

Defra provides information to help policy makers better understand rural proofing and make it easier to apply it to their work:

• Training for civil servants: Better policy making – understanding rural areas (Civil Service Learning) – this one-hour online course explains the concept of rural proofing, what it could look like and examples of the positive outcomes for rural areas when it is used
• Rural proofing guidance – guidance designed for policy makers and analysts

You can contact Defra’s rural team by emailing rural.impacts@defra.gov.uk. The team can answer your questions and provide advice.

Rural proofing: policy background

In 2018 an ad hoc House of Lords Select Committee on the Rural Economy, chaired by Lord Foster of Bath, was established to investigate the challenges facing rural communities and the rural economy. In its report ‘Time for a strategy for the rural economy’ (2019)​ the Committee recommended improvements to services in rural areas and called for the introduction of a rural strategy in England.

In their 2019 response to the Select Committee report, the government committed to:​

• expanding on its strategic vision​
• greater engagement with stakeholders ​
• annual reporting on rural proofing​
• a network of departmental rural proofing leads​
• revising rural proofing guidance​

The approach to rural proofing under the previous government

As set out in its response to the Select Committee report, Defra published 3 annual reports and an interim report detailing how rural proofing had been applied in England. All the reports were compiled with contributions from other government departments.

In March 2021 Defra published its first annual rural proofing report (Rural proofing in England 2020), which set out plans during 2021 to 2022 to support rural communities to recover from the impact of the COVID pandemic.

Defra published its second annual rural proofing report in September​ 2022 (Delivering for rural England). The report set out what levelling up would look like for rural areas, with analysis of the capitals framework and the 12 missions used in the Levelling Up White Paper.

An interim report was published in June 2023 (Unleashing rural opportunity), which set out a number of measures supporting rural growth and prosperity.

In March 2024 Defra published its third annual rural proofing report (Delivering rural opportunity), which demonstrated the progress that was being made on key issues for rural areas.