WHATEVER environmental, social and economic challenges we face, rural businesses will be a key part of the solution – that’s the message from the newly elected President of the CLA, Ross Murray.

Mr Murray, a Monmouthshire landowner and a Chartered Surveyor, succeeds Gloucestershire farmer Henry Robinson, who completed his two year term as CLA President last week.

Mr Murray said, “I am proud to be leading the organisation at a time when its work is more important than ever, in the face of uncertainty over relationships with Europe as well as challenging times for farming.

“I look forward to demonstrating the value of the rural economy and showing how managing the land is an active business involving risk and investment.

“Rural businesses take the long view managing and investing across generations, while remaining relevant and innovative and making a major contribution to the economy in England and Wales.”

Mr Murray said he wanted to provide a clearer understanding of the differences between rural businesses and their urban counterparts. The rural economy, he said, has agriculture at its heart, as well as providing protection for our heritage and the environment.

“But whatever the environmental, social and economic challenges we face, rural businesses are key to the solution and I look forward to taking our members’ message to the heart of Government,” he said.

The new CLA President and his wife run the Llanover estate in Monmouthshire, with enterprises including agriculture, forestry and a fishery on the River Usk. The estate includes a number of tenanted farms, and Mr and Mrs Murray farm Black Welsh Mountain sheep.

They have also developed the Llanover Business Park on the estate as well as a rural housing portfolio, a village school and a recently opened village store and coffee shop.

Mr Murray has acted as a Government-appointed member of Brecon Beacons National Park Authority, and he is a Trustee of the Wye and Usk Foundation and a strong supporter of the Rivers’ Trusts movement.