A New Rural Vision Begins with One Question

Opinion polls for the 2029 general election tell an extraordinary story. For the first time in years, nothing is settled. Five national parties sit above 12 per cent. No leader commands broad trust. The old electoral map is breaking apart. In an election this unpredictable, every vote will matter.

For those who work on the moors, farmland or forestry, this is a rare opportunity. Many feel deeply frustrated at how poorly Westminster understands the countryside. No wonder. But this is a moment we should seize with both hands. The stakes have rarely been higher for those who live and work on the land.

The Reality of Rural Neglect

For too long, rural workers, from gamekeeper to farm workers, have been easy for politicians to overlook. Less than one per cent of the UK workforce now works on the land. Westminster sees that small number and concludes rural issues are expendable.

Successive governments have either taken the rural vote for granted or written it off entirely. This one seems to have done the latter. The Conservatives missed their moment. Reform, for all its noise, has yet to offer a serious or workable rural plan.

Meanwhile, real work continues. On the moors and across the countryside, people improve habitats, restore peat, plant woodland and produce food. They keep rural economies alive. They hold communities together.

Yet their influence has ebbed away, drowned out by urban lobbying groups that dominate consultations and shape policy from offices far removed from storms, birch encroachment or heather beetle attacks. Traditional rural organisations risk appearing as if they are managing a slow decline rather than shaping a stronger future.

Perhaps that is why more people are starting to say that tweaking the rules is no longer enough. Keepers and farmers know this all too well. Another restriction on burning. Another shift in predator control. Another ‘simplification’ that somehow adds more complexity.

Wildlife outcomes don’t improve under this model. Paperwork does. Ground-nesting birds aren’t saved by bureaucracy. They are saved by people who know the land and who work it every single day.

Defining the Destination

So perhaps it is time to ask the question we have long avoided: what do we want instead? Not how to polish the existing tangle, but what we would build if we started afresh. It is the most important question - and one rarely asked because few have dared to ask it. Yet it should shape the rural debate of 2026. Only once we know the destination can we choose the right route. A stronger countryside begins with clarity about what we want it to become.

We aren’t starting from scratch. Other nations show there are better ways. New Zealand runs simpler, outcome-based rules that trust land managers to deliver. Finland uses true co-management, with game managers, foresters and farmers sitting alongside government scientists. Norway puts predator and habitat decisions into the hands of local boards that understand the landscape.

Alberta builds wildfire and grazing policy through partnerships with ranchers, community groups and land managers. Australia treats controlled burning as an ecological tool, not an ideological argument. They all share one principle, they trust the people who work the land – and get better results because of it.

Imagine Britain doing the same. Imagine a system built on trust, clarity and practical knowledge, not suspicion and paperwork.

Building Political Leverage

This is why talk of a new rural political movement is gaining momentum. Polite requests no longer work. The countryside may now need leverage. Thousands of trained rural activists ready to influence marginal seats and make it clear that rural Britain will no longer whisper from the sidelines. Not to split votes, but to ensure that any party wanting to govern treats the countryside as a partner, not an afterthought.

Everyone can play a part in shaping a shared vision. Ask the essential question: what do we want instead? Once the destination is agreed, working out how to get there becomes far easier.

The next election will be decided by those who speak clearly. The countryside has been quiet for too long. This is our moment to stand up and be counted. We can shape the future of the land and the way of life we love.

This article first appeared in Shooting Times.

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