Photo: Mayor David Skaith at the Great Yorkshire Show last year.
The Mayor of York and North Yorkshire is set to launch a new plan in a bid to boost rural communities at the Great Yorkshire Show next week.
It will be the first time that York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority has a major presence at the event, which is England's largest agricultural show.
The Combined Authority will use the event to engage with rural communities and drive the conversation around energy and growth with two panel session.
Working with police and fire colleagues, the Combined Authority will also use its presence at the show to promote safety and crime prevention in rural areas.
At the Great Yorkshire Show's Innovation Zone, which the Combined Authority has sponsored for the first time, Mayor David Skaith will unveil the Rural Action Plan.
It's a landmark ten-year strategy to support the rural areas, which make up around 94% of the land in York and North Yorkshire.
People who live in those rural areas face higher than average living costs, older and colder housing stock and persistent digital connectivity blackspots.
Those challenges come at a time when farms, which make up the majority of rural areas (68%), struggle to turn a profit.
David Skaith, the Mayor of York and North Yorkshire, said:
"The Great Yorkshire Show brings together the very best of our farmers and rural communities. They're the people who understand the challenges and opportunities better than anyone else, and I will take every opportunity to listen to their views.
"As we launch our ambitious Rural Action Plan to transform our countryside into a place of genuine opportunity, we start as we mean to go on. We're committed to giving a powerful voice to those who call these special places home."
To combat rural challenges going forward, the Rural Action Plan outlines key actions for the Combined Authority to meet by 2035.
At the forefront of the plan is a commitment to deliver at least 5,000 new rural homes, prioritising affordable, community-led developments across towns and villages. This housing push will be supported by retrofit designed to tackle fuel poverty.
Alongside warmer homes, the plan promises to upgrade rural infrastructure by tackling persistent digital and mobile blackspots, deploying targeted rural crime prevention initiatives, and investing in transport to make walking, wheeling, and cycling a realistic choice for everyday journeys.