In the Senedd recently Elin Jones, Plaid's Rural Affairs Minister, revealed that she has commissioned research to explore the range of issues and the provision of services in our deep rural communities.

The One Wales Government has promised to identify and address the needs of our deep rural areas and I’m very pleased to see Elin Jones taking action on that promise.

Unfortunately, many of the issues we are talking about aren’t devolved and we have to rely on the UK government for action and I would urge the UK government to seriously look at these issues from the perspective of the rural communities that are hugely affected by them.

We need action now and I’m glad to see that the Rural Affairs Minister here in the Assembly is looking to find some solutions with the powers available to her.

These communities face many challenges ranging from accessibility to key services, fuel poverty, lack of affordable housing, the effects of technological change and the implications of road pricing.

With a continuing decline in local services, as we’ve witnessed recently with the closure of our local post offices, rural residents need to travel greater distances, and because of significant gaps in public transport much more of their travel is by car.

What’s more, rising fuel prices are hitting rural areas hardest, especially less well-off households where a higher proportion of income goes on essentials including transport costs.

It was estimated recently that around 90,000 households in Wales used heating oil as their sole source of heating fuel with the majority of these households in our rural communities.

The extra and increasing cost of using heating oil means that people in rural areas are more likely to suffer from fuel poverty. It is not right that people are disadvantaged because of where they live.