The English Rural Development Commission

The Rural Development Commission continues to assist various schemes for economic and social improvement across parts of the English contryside. Rural Development Areas, with associated Rural Development Programmes, have existed for almost a decade, and were subjected to formal review in 1993. The RDC continues to provide nation-wide advice on rural issues, to support many rural development schemes, and to target assistance on freshly-defined and extended RDAs, which now cover one-third of the surface of England. The funds of the RDC continue to be small but the goodwill it generates is great. Any changes in the levels of taxation or the allocation of social-security payments would have significant effects on levels of well-being in the English countryside.