ESCALATING fuel and energy prices will ‘kill the countryside’ unless the Government intervenes to help those living there, West Somerset MP Ian Liddell-Grainger warns.

Mr Liddell-Grainger says new evidence showing the impact of cost-of-living increases on rural areas has merely underlined how urgent the need is.

The Rural Services Network, which represents rural councils and other service providers, says those in the countryside are spending much more on essentials like heating, transport, and housing than their urban counterparts - while earning much less.

Mr Liddell-Grainger says the report confirms a long-term trend he and other ‘shire’ MPs had long been warning about had now turned into a crisis.

He said: “We have repeatedly told the Government about the disproportionate costs rural families face while struggling with dire transport and infrastructure links and poor-quality connectivity.

“It has always been accepted that there is a ‘rural premium’ - the additional cost of delivering goods and services to remoter areas.

“But with the latest round of cost increases we have clearly reached a tipping point.

“Unless there is early and decisive Government action those increases are going to kill the countryside and we shall start to see rural depopulation on an unimaginable scale.”

Mr Liddell-Grainger, whose constituency includes most of Exmoor National Park, says rural transport is a priority issue.

“The countryside was incredibly well-served by buses up to the point where increasing post-war prosperity meant most people could afford to buy and run a car, at which point thousands of miles of bus routes were scrapped,” he said.

“That situation no longer exists. Countless numbers of rural families are only able to access shops and other services thanks to car-sharing.

“At the moment, the countryside is running on goodwill - and that is far too precarious a situation.

“Unless we restore bus routes and make a serious attempt to upgrade connectivity the British countryside will become the exclusive province of the wealthy and the second-home owner.

“Villages will die and the entire, rich fabric of rural life in this country will be damaged beyond repair.

“There is still time for remedies to be applied to avert that situation but they need to be put in place rapidly. The writing is on the wall - and the Government would do well to read it.”