WEST Devon and Torridge MP Geoffrey Cox last week urged the Government to take urgent action to redress the plight of rural communities in the South West. Mr Cox was speaking in the House of Commons during a debate on health inequalities ? his comments came just days before the Centre for Rural Economy (CRE) named Devon, along with Cumbria, as having the lowest economic growth rates and lowest average weekly salaries in the UK. Mr Cox claimed the formula used by government to determine levels of need as inherently biassed towards urban areas, and called on the Government to recognise the disproportionately high cost of providing health services in a rural community. Mr Cox said: ?Although the Government has made noises about compiling a rural database from which to make an accurate assessment of rural needs, little has been done.? He said this resulted in high, but officially unrecognised, levels of deprivation, social exclusion and poverty. ?This year, the schoolchildren of Devon will receive £308 a pupil less than the national funding average, and next year they will receive £330 less, which amounts to the sixth worst education grant in the country. ?The people are entitled to doubt the Government?s commitment to rural areas in the south west.?
