Outside body

The Rural Services Network is a Special Interest Group of the Local Government Association.  It is a membership organisation and works on behalf of members as the national champion for rural services. 

It supports its member organisations through the sharing of best practice and rural expertise, and advocate on their behalf to ensure that the rural voice is raised up the agenda with parliamentarians and decision makers.

The Rural Services Network has different levels of membership and currently represents:

• 100 Local Authorities in Sparse Membership
• 15 Local Authorities in Rural Assembly Membership
• 216 Organisations across England as part of the Rural Services Partnership
• 219 Rural Market Towns and Larger Parishes

In addition, it has a large number of Parish and Town Councils have community membership of the RSN, due to their Principal Council being in Sparse or Rural Assembly membership.