Press Release – Our local MP calls for rural businesses in Cheshire to be integral part of Government's industrial strategy

Eddisbury MP Antoinette Sandbach has backed calls made by the CLA (Country Land & Business Association) to ensure that the Government's Industrial Strategy and the 25-year Plan for Food and Farming unlock the investment potential of the countryside.

Antoinette pledged her support at the CLA's Rural Business Conference in Westminster, which was attended by more than 400 rural business owners who were given sight of new research commissioned by the CLA which revealed that landowning businesses in rural England and Wales ' 96% of which are family businesses ' are currently investing more than £13 billion a year, and there is potential for this figure to increase. It also painted an optimistic picture about the future with more than 80% of landowning rural businesses planning to make investments for business resilience and growth.
The CLA, which represents 32,000 landowners, farmers and rural businesses in England and Wales, is urging Government to set out a new tax roadmap for family businesses, to finish the job of reforming the planning system, and undertake regulatory changes that allow more rural businesses to enter into new markets such as supplying broadband and energy to local customers.
Antoinette said: 'I am delighted to have been able to support the CLA's call for the Government to ensure that its policies unlock the potential of the countryside. Throughout my constituency I see innovative and successful rural businesses
that have the potential to grow and make further investments into the local economy.'
CLA Midlands Regional Director Caroline Bedell said: 'Rural landowning businesses are at the heart of the rural economy and I am delighted that Antoinette was able to show her support for rural business at the CLA's Rural Business Conference
and I look forward to working with her to ensure rural businesses in Eddisbury are at the heart of both the industrial strategy and 25 year plan for food and farming'