Structure, strategy and space - Issues of progressing integrated rural development in Wales

Slow progress towards the integration of rural policies at EU level is encouraging member states to promote strategic and local forms of integrated rural development (IRD) at the point of policy implementation. In the UK, the progressive agenda of devolution coupled with accumulating evidence on spatial trajectories of rural development suggests that it is at the regional level that IRD needs to be fostered. This raises a number of issues for rural regions, concerning how to develop spatially sensitive strategies for IRD and institutional structures conducive to integrated development needs. The purpose of this paper is to explore these issues by focusing on how well the evolving institutional structure in Wales fits the needs of IRD, as exemplified by the objective of developing strong vertical linkages between agricultural production and the food sector. This provides a number of challenges for the new devolved tier of government in Wales, the Assembly, and has a number of wider implications for the progression of IRD across rural regions.