sou · H5B31 · 2017-01-04 00:00:00 — •God tillgång till kommersiell service. •Likvärdig tillgång till vård, skola och omsorg oberoende av bostadsort. •Likvärdiga möjligheter att utöva och uppleva kultur oberoende av bostadsort. En utgångspunkt för kommitténs förslag är att staten måste ta ett större ansvar för landsbygdernas kommersiella service, välfärdstjänster och kulturutbud. För att stärka och utveckla den kommersiella servicen lämnar kommittén bland annat förslag som syftar till att säkra tillgången till post- och betaltjänster (6.2.2, 6.2.3). Kommittén föreslår också att det kommunala utjämningssystemet anpassas till ändrade demografiska och andra förhållanden samt att de specialdestinerade statsbidragen i ökad utsträckning görs generella (6.4.1). Vidare föreslår kommittén att och Myndigheten för kulturanalys får uppdrag som syftar till att göra kulturen mer tillgänglig i landsbygderna (6.7.1). Staten ska bli mer närvarande i landsbygderna Kommittén konstaterar att staten har dragit sig tillbaka från landsbygderna och allt mer koncentrerat verksamheten till tätorter och större städer. En utgångspunkt för kommitténs förslag är därför att staten måste bli mer närvarande i hela landet och att staten som arbetsgivare måste ta ett större ansvar för landsbygdernas utveckling. Kommitténs mål för området är: •Staten är fysiskt närvarande i landsbygderna med arbetsplatser myndighetsservice och polis. Kommittén lämnar ett antal förslag som syftar till att stärka den statliga närvaron i landsbygderna. Kommittén föreslår att Arbetsförmedlingen stoppar planerade nedläggningar inom sitt lokala kontorsnät till dess att konsekvenserna av nedläggningarna och av införandet av alternativa digitala kanaler för arbetssökande har utvärderats (7.1.1). Polisens närvaro i landsbygderna är en mycket viktig trygghetsfaktor för landsbygdernas invånare. Kommittén föreslår att regeringen ställer krav på maximal insatstid för polisärenden där ingripanden måste ske (7.1.2). Kommittén föreslår också att en serviceorganisation inrättas med uppgift att ansvara för den lokala service som utförs av , och (7.1.3). Två alternativa modeller för en sådan organisation redovisas. Där det är möjligt bör Arbetsförmedlingen, och samlokaliseras med den nya serviceorganisationen. Antalet tjänster vid statliga myndigheter i FA-regi- on har –2014 ökat med drygt 10 000. minskar antalet statliga tjänster i många arbetsmarknadsmässigt utsatta FA-regioner. Kommittén rekommenderar därför att 10 000 tjänster vid statliga myndigheter i under en 5 till omlokaliseras till FA-regioner i behov av statliga arbetstillfällen (7.1.4). En tydligare styrning och samordning av landsbygdspolitiken Den starka statliga sektoriseringen är ett problem för ett tvärsektoriellt och komplext politikområde som landsbygdspolitiken. Landsbygdernas möjligheter till utveckling och tillväxt, som bygger på att aktörer på olika nivåer samverkar, försämras i ett sektorbaserat system jämfört med ett där geografin tillmäts en betydelse. En förutsättning för en framgångsrik landsbygdsutveckling är att det finns arbetssätt och verktyg som gör det möjligt samordna åtgärder inom olika politikområden. En utgångspunkt för kommitténs förslag är att det behövs en tydligare styrning och samordning av landsbygdspolitiken. Om detta ska lyckas behöver de olika statliga aktörernas roller tydliggöras. Kommittén lämnar ett antal förslag för att åstadkomma detta (8.1.1–8.1.6). Vi föreslår bland annat •att det i kommittéförordningen stadgas att kommittéer i sina betänkanden ska ange konsekvenser för landsbygden av sina förslag, •att det i samband med regeringens gemensamma beredning av propositioner och andra regeringsbeslut införs en särskild bedömning av beslutens konsekvenser för landsbygderna, •att vissa myndigheters och statliga bolags landsbygdspolitiska ansvar tydliggörs i myndigheternas instruktioner och bolagens ägardirektiv, och •att det i varje län ska inrättas en strategisk och operativ samordningsfunktion, benämnd landsbygdsdelegation. Landsbygdsdelegationerna ska, inom ramen för länsstyrelsernas samordningsuppdrag, samordna de statliga myndigheternas verksamhet inom landsbygdspolitiken. Delegationerna ska ledas av landshövdingarna. Bättre förutsättningar för civilsamhället att bidra till landsbygdernas utveckling Människors engagemang och förmåga till samarbete och organisering är grunden för hållbar utveckling. Det finns ett rikt föreningsliv i landsbygderna. I många landsbygder tar dessutom det civila samhället genom sina föreningar stort ansvar för lokal service och infrastruktur. En landsbygdspolitik måste därför underlätta för den insats som civilsamhället bidrar med. I landsbygderna är det särskilt viktigt att verksamheter kan drivas i småskaliga lösningar som ger samordningsvinster. Det är därför betydelsefullt att offentlig, privat och ideell sektor samarbetar. Civilsamhället kan genom sina organisationer också bidra till bättre beslutsunderlag i offentlig sektor. Enligt kommittén behöver därför arenorna för dialog och samarbete stärkas. Föreningslivet i landsbygderna behöver breddas. Fler unga och nya svenskar behöver i större utsträckning känna förankring och att de är viktiga för sina bygders utveckling. Deras engagemang behövs för att kunna stärka utvecklingen i landsbygderna. Kommitténs mål för det civila samhället är: •Staten främjar det civila samhällets engagemang i landsbygdernas utveckling. Staten kan bidra till att stärka flera arenor på olika nivåer. Därför föreslår kommittén bland annat att leadermetoden görs rikstäckande och att statens överenskommelse med civilsamhället på nationell nivå breddas genom att också fokusera på utveckling av arbetsmetoder för landsbygdsutveckling (9.3.2, 9.3.3). Kommittén föreslår också riktade stöd till folkbildningen för att stärka i synnerhet ungas och personer med invandrarbakgrunds möjligheter och förmåga att delta i landsbygdsutveckling (9.3.1). Kostnader och finansiering av kommitténs förslag Kommittén föreslår ett stort antal åtgärder för att stärka utvecklingskraften i landsbygderna. Den positiva samhällsekonomiska effekten av våra förslag ska komma genom kombinationen av förslagen. Konsekvenserna av våra förslag bör således bedömas samlat. Det har visat sig att det finns omfattande brister i dagens system för reseavdrag. Genom felaktiga utbetalningar går staten miste om utifrån dagens nivåer av avdraget. Om reseavdraget, som kommittén föreslår, görs avståndsbaserat skapas utrymme för att göra effektivare utvecklingsinsatser i landsbygderna. Viktigare insatser och deras finansiering redovisas nedan. •Den årliga kostnaden för ett statsbidrag som syftar till att skapa en infrastruktur för utbildningscentra i FA-regioner som saknar universitet och högskola, eller har få etablerade kommunala lärcentra inom regionen, uppskattas till . Finansieringen föreslås ske med medel som frigörs genom vårt förslag om avståndsbaserat reseavdrag. Lärosätenas kostnader för satsningen bör kunna finansieras inom befintliga anslag. •Kostnaden för kommitténs förslag om bredbandsutbyggnaden, beräknas till . De årliga investeringarna i en fortsatt bredbandsutbyggnad är av 5–. Finansieringen föreslås ske med medel som frigörs genom vårt förslag om avståndsbaserat reseavdrag. Finansieringen ska ses i relation till att regeringen redan disponerar för fortsatt bredbandsutbyggnad. •Kommitténs rekommendation om att minst 10 000 tjänster vid statliga myndigheter i under en 5 till 7- årsperiod omlokaliseras till FA-regioner i behov av statliga arbetstillfällen kan inledningsvis leda till vissa kostnader som sammanhänger med flytten till nya orter och nya lokaler. Dessa kostnader bör emellertid huvudsakligen inrymmas i berörda myndigheters anslag. •Kommitténs förslag om att genomföra lokalt ledd utveckling med leadermetoden i hela landet beräknas kosta ytterligare sett . Finansieringen förslås ske genom omprioriteringar inom landsbygdsprogrammet, bland annat genom de resurser som frigörs genom vårt förslag om en resursmässigt effektivare och mer samordnad upphandling av bredband. •Därutöver har kommittén identifierat en möjlig finansiering på som kan avsättas i näringspolitiska och tillväxtfrämjande åtgärder i ett paket till de utpekade 23 kommunerna med extra stora utmaningar. Det kan exempelvis handla om åtgärder som prövats i i form av sänkta arbetsgivaravgifter och nedskrivning av studielån. Finansieringen föreslås ske med medel som frigörs genom vårt förslag om avståndsbaserat reseavdrag. Why a coherent rural policy is needed Rural areas create opportunities as well as challenges. Rural areas are home to flourishing businesses with high production values that must be given every opportunity to engage with their future markets. Some of this industry is derived from location-dependent resources that are important for as a whole. Among other things, the natural resources of rural areas and their cultural environment are important for taking into a bio-based and fossil-free economy and for making a developed tourist nation. Populated, and growing rural areas are therefore vitally important. People who live and work in rural areas contribute towards our society as a whole and have the right to good living conditions. There is currently no coherent policy for rural areas that is clearly founded on the challenges and opportunities faced by society. One overarching ambition for the Committee is to present such a coherent rural development policy for the next 30 years. The aim of this policy is to optimism and faith in the future across the whole of . Our most fundamental underlying assumption is that rural areas are to be given the same conditions to develop as other parts of and provide the people who live and work in rural areas with equal opportunities to lead good lives. Rural development has long been headed in a direction that runs counter to this ambition. The result has been a failure to exploit business potential and greater discrepancies between access to public services in different parts of the country. Continued division of is unacceptable on economic, social, environmental and Rural offers many of the solutions to the challenges of the future, not least in climate policy, but for it to do so, it must be possible to live and work there. ’s citizens operate within different social and economic contexts. Many of them have voluntarily signed up to these in what we term civil society. Other contexts are created in that citizenship involves obligations and rights in relation to the institutions of society. In our view, however, citizenship is not merely a formality; it is also an expression of a social contract between the citizens and the public sector in the form of the State, county councils and municipalities. If there is too great a gap between expected rights and actual reality, there is a risk that this social contract will fall apart. This may have far-reaching consequences for confidence in society and democracy. We consider that the social contract should be developed further in order to ensure that business and the citizens in rural areas are afforded the same conditions as other parts of . In order to achieve this, is submitting 75 proposals that in total lay the groundwork for a more cohesive in which everyone, wherever they live, is provided with what they essentially need in order to live their lives. In our work to draw up a cohesive rural development policy, we have drawn on three overarching perspectives: •Equal conditions for citizens to live and work in rural areas. •Increasing the capacity of rural areas to exploit opportunities for entrepreneurship and employment in a that is sustainable in the long term. •Increasing the opportunities of rural areas to contribute towards the positive development of the economy. ’s proposals and objectives for rural development In this final report the Committee is submitting a large number of proposals that will contribute towards a coherent policy for the long-term sustainable development of ’s rural communities. has also set out an overarching objective for rural development over a 30-year period: •Viable rural areas with equal opportunities for enterprise, work, housing and welfare. The objectives and the proposals that the Committee sets out in this final report draw on the analyses and assumptions in principle made by the Committee in its interim report På väg mot en ny politik för landsbygder – landsbygdernas utveckling, möjligheter och utmaningar (Towards a new policy for ’s rural areas – rural development, opportunities and challenges) (SOU 2016:26). A business policy for rural The assumption underlying the Committee’s business policy proposals is that there are important production values in rural areas that it is important to exploit. In the Committee’s analyses we can see that increasing globalisation and specialisation makes major demands in terms of business capacity for renewal. Companies must be able to interact with actors locally, nationally and globally, actors who are capable of contributing expertise and money towards developing products and services. For solo and small businesses in sparsely populated areas in particular, the way in which they develop long-distance partnerships is vital. Our proposals on good digital and physical communication opportunities are important in this respect. The same applies to good access to a skilled workforce. According to the Committee, the objective for this area should be: •for rural conditions to be taken into account to create a diversified, competitive and sustainable business community with a good capacity for renewal. We can state that there are additional needs for financial capital primarily in sparsely populated and very sparsely populated rural areas. is therefore submitting proposals that will reinforce the mandates of , to work for business development in these rural areas. (2.3.1 and 2.3.2). Capacity for renewal is strengthened by important contacts being forged between research, other expertise, advisors and producers at an early stage of an innovation. Therefore the Committee proposes that current measures be expanded, including support for innovation groups and innovation networking within the remit of the Rural Development Programme (2.3.2). It is important that this support reaches more companies and branches in rural areas. Increased exports are important for boosting business competitiveness. therefore proposes that the actors that work through regional export centres and Visit are charged with carrying out targeted initiatives for companies in rural areas (2.3.3). It is particularly important that small companies, particularly in sparsely and very sparsely populated rural areas, are able to benefit from the initiatives that export centres are able to offer. finds that there are numerous pieces of legislation and rules being applied that make it more difficult for those who run location-specific activities in rural areas, and for operations that are seasonal in nature. The problems arise partly due to a lack of knowledge of the conditions under which rural enterprise operates. For this reason it is important that those drawing up policy and those applying it on the ground are better informed about enterprise in sparsely populated areas. Knowledge development is needed and the Committee proposes that this be achieved through a newly established research centre (2.3.5). Business package in municipalities facing particularly tough challenges finds that current initiatives in support area A need to be supplemented to meet the particularly tough challenges that certain labour markets and municipalities face because they are in local labour market regions whose populations are small but which cover a large geographical area. These municipalities have had population decline and a business structure that consists of a relatively limited number of industries, which further heightens the challenges. Therefore, the Committee proposes a package with a combination of measures to create synergies and a positive development spiral in 23 municipalities with these extra challenges (2.3.4). The package is to increase access to labour and free up capital for local businesses. This will help to ensure that the production values stay and are reinvested in these rural areas. This in turn will strengthen the production capacity in these regions and in the long term lead to both new and retained jobs. Access to labour is to be improved through investments in training centres and relocating public sector jobs. Improved communications will mainly be attained through an expanded highcapacity digital infrastructure. The package can also include million that can be used to enhance production capacity in these regions. This can be used for measures such as a greater reduction in employer and self-employed taxes and to write off student loans. We propose that the Government investigate these measures further. Digitalisation and transport infrastructure is to contribute towards rural development Despite ambitious targets for expanding broadband, the Committee can state that there are still many households, mainly in sparsely populated areas, that lack rapid broadband. The need for investment in all types of transport currently exceeds the funding allocated. Where investments are made, calculations of the regional consequences of the investment are rarely carried out, despite the fact that the same transport investment may have completely different impacts depending on where it is located. Some investments can thus cause negative effects for more territorial policy areas such as rural policy. Well-functioning digital communication and well-functioning transport systems make life easier for residents in rural areas and are of the utmost importance to rural development. munication opportunities are also vital to citizens’ ability to commute to work and use public and private services. has drawn up two objectives for this area: •The whole country will benefit from the opportunities of digitalisation. •An infrastructure that guarantees passenger and goods transport to citizens and businesses in rural areas. To make sure that rural areas too have access to efficient and safe digital communication with a high transfer capacity, the Committee is submitting a number of proposals (3.1, 3.1.1, 3.1.2). proposes that the Government decide a new objective for broadband expansion in which the whole country is to have access to digital infrastructure with transfer capacity of at least /s by 2025. also proposes that be commissioned to shape broadband support within the Rural Development Programme 2021–2027 so that the county administrative boards together with those responsible for regional development and municipalities can procure broadband with high transfer capacity. is also submitting a number of proposals that seek to improve passenger and goods transport in rural areas. Among other things the Committee proposes that the Government assess the consequences that a change in taxation, charges and deductions in the area of transport policy would have on the opportunities for achieving the objectives of rural development policy (3.2.1). also proposes that the Government take the initiative to launch an overview of the deduction system with the aim of making it based on distance (3.2.2). Skills supply that meets the labour requirements of rural areas Skills supply in rural areas faces major challenges. Many young people move away from the countryside to university and college towns for their education, and far too few of them return. Both the private and public sector are finding it difficult to recruit people with the right qualifications. There is also a lack of people with higher education, which makes it difficult to attract knowledgeintensive businesses to rural areas. Skills are one of the cornerstones of economic growth and development. This is particularly true of rural areas. Access to higher education locally is therefore important for rural industry and for the public sector. ’s objective for this area is: •for the education system to ensure a supply of skills and increase access to higher education throughout . is submitting several proposals to safeguard skills supply in rural areas. The proposals have two main areas of focus. Firstly, a number of our proposals seek to increase access to higher education across . It is proposed that this take the form of education run at universities and higher education institutions being able to be offered locally in partnership with municipalities in what will be known as education centres (4.3). Secondly, the Committee proposes that the Government investigate the effects and consequences were the State to write off a proportion of the student loans of people who live and work in the 23 municipalities that the Committee proposes be the subject of special initiatives (4.4). Planning and housing policy that meets the needs of rural areas finds that there is a demand for housing in rural areas. The majority of rural municipalities currently have a shortage of housing, and not only in central locations. Housing supply has a major impact on capacity for rural development. Good housing can be essential in attracting the labour that rural areas need to move to these locations. Homes are necessary if municipalities are to be able to retain young and newly arrived people and facilitate their education and entry into the labour market. people living in rural areas also expands the basis for commercial and public services. Municipal land-use planning that covers the rural areas is also important for ensuring that these areas are able to exploit their opportunities for development and housing. The objectives that the Committee has drawn up for the area are: •Facilitating housing in rural areas. •Planning that encourages rural development. In order to ensure that the municipalities use land-use planning to a greater extent as a tool to create good conditions for rural development, the Committee proposes that , and Planning be commissioned to draw up guidance for how rural values and development opportunities can be accounted for within the framework of municipal land-use planning (5.1). is also submitting a number of proposals that seek to reduce certain restrictions that apply to and development in rural areas. The proposals concern national interests, protection of beaches, and water and drainage legislation (5.1.1 – 5.1.3). To increase the State’s commitment to houses in rural areas, the Committee proposes that the Government take the initiative to investigate whether can be facilitated by introducing special rural loans for self-builders, rentals, owned apartments, cooperative tenancies and tenant-ownership. Improved access to services, welfare and the arts in rural areas finds that commercial services in rural areas are tending to decline. For example, the number of supermarkets is in decline in all types of rural areas, as is access to payment services and cash handling. Access to commercial services and welfare services is vital to rural development. If there are no schools or pre-schools, supermarkets, filling stations, post offices or pharmacies, etc. it is hard to attract new citizens, and to run businesses in particular. The arts also play an important role in creating attractive environments in which to live capable of contributing towards the vitality and development of rural areas. Demographic trends pose the greatest challenge for welfare services. When a municipality’s population falls, the municipality faces difficulties funding their operations and recruiting staff. The objectives that the Committee has drawn up for this area are: •Good access to commercial services. •Equitable access to health care, education and care no matter where people live. •Equitable opportunities to practice and experience culture no matter where people live.