BELL Busk farmer Sam Moorhouse was among the keynote speakers at a conference aimed at challenging Government misconceptions about rural areas in the run-up to Brexit.

Mr Moorhouse, whose business was recently voted ‘Britain’s most Innovative Farm Diversification’ for his Hesper Farm Skyr yoghurt, addressed delegates at the York, North Yorkshire and East Riding Local Enterprise Partnership conference at Sand Hutton, York.

He spoke, along with Jon Timmis of the University of York, on the influence a more automated world will have on rural businesses and communities.

Joining Mr Moorhouse on stage was David Kerfoot, the organisation’s new chairman, and Dorothy Fairburn of the Country Land and Business Association.

Around 200 delegates were told that, despite the lack of understanding amongst policy makers in Whitehall, Britain’s rural areas are the powerhouses for cities, a hotbed for innovation and host to thriving businesses.

Mr Kerfoot said: “We have an ambitious vision for our rural regions, and are determined to see it realised. We want the government to wake up to the irrefutable fact that our rural areas play a vital role in ensuring a buoyant national economy.

“We look forward to beginning close engagement with our rural stakeholders around our post-Brexit strategy and our local industrial strategy, which for us will be, in a large part, a rural industrial strategy.” Dorothy Fairburn, said: “This LEP is a partnership that really understands the importance of our rural areas.

“It also underlines the CLA’s call for greater and continued investment to support farms and rural businesses as part of the Government’s Industrial Strategy.”