Standing up for Rural Scotland

Rural communities are the heart of Scotland. We would prioritise them by:

Open up a new Small Town and Rural Bus Services Fund. This would allow councils to apply for additional funding to keep bus routes open, ensuring that rural communities and those living in small towns continue to be served by bus.

Give rural councils the funding they need to cover the increased costs of delivering services. The current funding formula includes too many factors that are unfair to rural councils. We would address this and ensure rural local authorities are properly compensated for the higher cost of delivering local services. We would also ensure urban councils are given appropriate funding if they are experiencing high population growth.

Ensure that farming is properly funded with at least a £50 million uplift to the rural budget. After this we would provide above inflation rises and guarantee multi-year settlements.

Establish a National Bridge Restoration Fund to fix our bridges. Bridges that rural communities rely upon are frequently neglected. We would establish a funds so councils can apply for the cash needed to fix bridges in their area.

We would explore options for rural areas to take over local schools threatened with closure. For rural schools and nurseries that are under threat of closure, we must do more to ensure they stay open. When a closure is proposed, we would introduce mandatory depopulation impact assessments that would have to be conducted before any closure takes place.

Work with teachers to fill vacancies in rural schools. Schools in our rural communities are struggling to find teachers. The Scottish Conservatives would establish a working group with teachers looking for full-time work and schools in our rural communities.

Introduce a Rural Crime Bill. We would introduce a Rural Crime Bill as one of our first acts of parliament that would ensure agricultural equipment is fit with an immobiliser and forensic markings to identify the buyer. We would forbid the sale of equipment without these attachments and require that records are kept of sales to identify where stolen equipment has come from.

Bring faster broadband to rural communities. Too many parts of rural Scotland still don’t have access to high-speed broadband. We would finally f finish the delayed rollout of the ‘R100 programme’.