Minister Pledges to Put Countryside Back Into the Heart of Westminster

Summary

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Environment Secretary Caroline Spelman tells Graeme Demianyk she believes the Government is improving the countryside When Caroline Spelman takes her seat round the Cabinet table, she is going in to bat for rural communities. This is the impression the Environment Secretary gives when discussing what is in her department's in- tray.

Take the rising cost of fuel. Few motorists in the West, where the car is king, will not have felt the pinch. So is the boss of the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs making representations to the Treasury on behalf of the countryside? "If you live in a city you've got access to public transport, but if you live in the middle of the countryside you've got a very long way to go for basic services," she says, not long out of Cabinet and sitting in her grand, slightly shopworn Whitehall HQ. "What I can tell you is that you've got a Chief Secretary (to the Treasury - Danny Alexander) well-disposed to trying to do something about that - I spoke to him only this morning about that."

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Minister Pledges to Put Countryside Back Into the Heart of Westminster

But the Conservative MP believes "Danny seems fairly confident he can find something" to help rural areas. Petrol prices are emblematic of Defra's approach under the coalition. Ministers don't fight shy of their rural credentials. Ms Spelman worked for the National Farmers' Union (as well as co...

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