The prime minister has today received two reports on the situation in the countryside. One comes from his chosen rural recovery co-ordinator, Lord Haskins, and the other from the Rural Task Force, led by rural affairs minister Alun Michael.

In his report, Lord Haskins warns that farmers and tourism businesses will face serious problems during the winter in areas badly hit by foot and mouth. He calls for an extra £40 million for the government's business recovery fund and urges the government to consider short term compensation for farmers unable to sell their livestock outside their local areas.

The report of the rural task force stresses the need for future policies for the countryside to take better account of the links between farming and the wider rural economy. The task force also believe there should be a recognition that countryside tourism is a powerful economic force in many rural areas and is frequently worth more to local economies than the farming that supports it. The task force argues the pace and extent of recovery will vary between areas, and the full impact on rural businesses will take time to become apparent.

Forum Response: Countryside Alliance

Chief Executive of the Countryside Alliance, Richard Burge, told ePolitix.com: "The true value of the rural task force is that it has been an effective vehicle for monitoring and calling into account the government's role in tackling the effects of foot and mouth disease. But its report has failed to identify any inventive solutions to address the continuing crisis or for the countryside's future regeneration.

"The report treats farming as a secondary commercial activity whilst conservation and rights of ways are mistakenly treated as a responsibility rather than a commercial product of the countryside. Moreover there is no recognition of the value of country sports to the economic and social viability of the countryside - despite the fact that livery and riding stables have been hammered, 85 per cent of the point-to-point season has been curtailed and the angling industry was pushed to its knees.

"By contrast Lord Haskins' report should be commended for daring to make a number of hard-hitting though wholly realistic recommendations. However, it betrays his unsurprisingly 'supermarket' view of the countryside - he confuses farming with agriculture and mistakenly thinks the sole role of farmers is to produce food. If the government dared to do as we have long suggested and use the French land management contract system, we could achieve what Haskins is suggesting literally overnight."

Forum Response: Country Land and Business Association

Anthony Bosanquet, president of the Country Land and Business Association, told ePolitix.com: "The rural economy is like a patient that has been in intensive care for months. We are saying that at this juncture, it would be very short-sighted to risk switching off the life support system because if the patient consequently died it would certainly be very expensive and maybe not possible at all to bring the patient back to life.

"The government has helped already and that support is much appreciated. But the crisis has not gone away, nor has it reduced in scale. The rural economy faces a bleak winter. Without further help thousands of businesses are unlikely to make it through to next spring, just when we need to re-launch the countryside. The cost of business failure would greatly exceed the costs of further support. We in the CLA may have spoken loudly in the task force about this plight but we have done so out of knowledge and because we believe that further help will be cost effective.

"Thankfully, with the help of draft rural task force reports, Lord Haskins has largely reached the most appropriate conclusions and the CLA predominantly agrees with much of his philosophy but his report fails to acknowledge the scale of the crisis and the support he recommends does not go nearly far enough.

"£40 million of rural recovery fund money is likely to enable fewer than 3000 businesses nation-wide to receive the assistance they actually need. The task force report tells us that there is already £158 million of unpaid value added tax, national insurance and income tax.

"In addition, the CLA believes that there are 12,000 businesses who have not been able to pay their rates since the start of foot and mouth disease. Therefore, with only Haskins' £40 million, there will be many thousands of businesses with seasonal income going into the winter unable to pay their tax or rate bills, or support their families and unable to carry out the essential maintenance and make the upgrades in quality they are being urged to do

"Haskins conclusions, however, must be delivered in conjunction with the recommendations of the RTF report, without which none of Haskin's aspirations about a more business like approach can be realised. Farmers and rural businesses are not lacking in enterprise or initiative; they are suffocated by government regulation, restriction, and interference.

"Communications technology must be extended wholesale into rural areas, the competition commission must not stand in the way of greater farmer collaboration, a level playing field must be created for farmers to sell their produce and the inadequate funding of services in rural communities must come to an end."