The government must do more to restrict regulations which are snuffing out rural communities, Margaret Beckett admitted on Tuesday.

Launching the LGA's rural revival inquiry, the rural affairs secretary said the provision of key services in rural areas remained a problem.

"We need to do more to support communities and build social capital by helping small voluntary organisations become more effective rather than risk regulating them out of existence, and more to counter rural social exclusion by sustaining the services - village shops, buses - that young and old people especially depend on," she said.

"But we also need to understand much better the nature of the problem, and the solutions that work."

The rural affairs secretary conceded that her department had to do more to "support and stimulate rural business...especially in disadvantaged areas".

"Deregulation, or more user-focused regulation, may be part of the solution here," she admitted.

"All services remain an issue, we need to focus more on those services where problems are greatest and where resolution could make the greatest contribution," she said.

"Transport, ICT and broadband, skills training, and housing and planning are probably those causing most concern."

She also said that the government needed to integrate land use and land management policy into broader rural policy.

"This is where Defra - by bringing farming, landscape conservation, and rural economic and social policy under one departmental roof - and with our overarching aim of sustainable development - really should be able to make a difference," said Beckett.