§ Mr. LoughtonTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions if he will publish his Department's consultation document concerning additional funds to deal with rural poverty. [113476]
§ Mr. Mullin[holding answer 7 March 2000]: As part of the consultation for the forthcoming Rural White Paper, DETR published its discussion document "Rural England" in February 1999. This posed a series of questions on a wide range of rural issues. A summary of the themes arising from this consultation has been published on the DETR internet website.
Rural poverty is one of the issues being addressed in preparing for the Rural White Paper which we expect to publish later this year.
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§ Mr. LoughtonTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions if he will publish his Department's research into the extent of rural poverty; and what definitions of poverty he has used. [113465]
§ Mr. Mullin[holding answer 7 March 2000]: Poverty is a complex, multi-dimensional issue, affecting many aspects of people's lives—income, health, housing, the quality of the environment, opportunities to work and learn, and access to services. There is no single reliable measure.
The Countryside Agency, the Government's statutory adviser on social and economic development in rural areas, has been conducting research into indicators of rural disadvantage. The findings of this research are expected to be published in due course. Current information on rural disadvantage is contained in the Agency's "State of the Countryside", a copy of which is in the Library. It is also among the topics covered in The Cabinet Office's "Sharing the Nation's Prosperity" report, which provides information on the economic, social and environmental conditions in the countryside.