Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what support his Department makes available for small village shops run by voluntary associations.

The LEADER programme supports the provision of rural services and has provided £346,000 in locally led grants for community shops.

The ACRE Network of Rural Community Councils has a long history and strong track record in supporting community entrepreneurship, the management of community assets such as shops and encouraging communities to engage with service providers such as the Post Office. Defra has supported the ACRE Network for many years, providing around £2 million of funding per year.

Defra also works closely with the Plunkett Foundation which supports people, predominantly in rural areas, to set up and run successful community co-operatives such as shops.

The Government has doubled the Small Business Rate Relief from 50% to 100% from 1 April 2017, benefitting rural businesses such as shops. They can qualify for rural rate relief if their business is in a rural area with a population below 3,000 or if they are the only village shop or post office, with a rateable value of up to £8,500.