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We're a region of market towns. OK - so some of them are cities but let's not be too picky. It's the bits in between that are the problem.

Yes, the green stuff you see out of train windows is where many people live and in the East of England more of the region than not is "rural".

• Large expanses of arable land are characteristic of the region
• Twenty per cent of all cereal farms in the UK were in the East of England in 2006.
• There is one area with National Park status covering the Norfolk and Suffolk Broads which is around 300 square km in area and makes up 2% of the region

A new body - A - "made up of leading organisations which represent rural interests" is calling on the government to let local people seize the initiative.

It wants plans for referenda in the government's Community Right to Build scheme to be scrapped. The scheme requires 90% community support before new, small-scale development can go ahead in villages,

It hopes to develop community ownership of shops, Post Offices, pubs, broadband hubs, sustainable energy and local transport.

And the Rural Coalition is calling for the government to take proper account of the impact of public sector funding cuts on rural areas before finalising the Comprehensive Spending Review in October.

Well, it's a nice thought ...

One of our newly-elected MPs, the Conservative member for Mid Norfolk, George Freeman, has been campaigning for rural regeneration with his 'Norfolk Way'. He sees the delivery of rural broadband as paramount.

"As well as lobbying for government reforms to open up the digital network and push for Norfolk to be a pilot area, I'm speaking to a number of specialist broadband providers in rural areas about quick ways we can improve speeds in rural areas in the short term."

The Rural Coalition is throwing down the gauntlet to the government.

Its chairman Matthew Taylor, author of the Taylor Review of affordable housing and rural economies in 2008, says:"On its current course, with no change in policy and no commitment to action, much of the countryside is becoming part dormitory, part theme park and part retirement home.

"If the government is serious about localism, it should rise to the challenge."

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