Politicians are set to descend on Hatfield next week to discuss the future of the British countryside.

The inaugural 'Future Countryside' conference will take place at Hatfield House on Tuesday, June 6, with a raft of well-known guest speakers.

They include environment secretary Thérèse Coffey, shadow environment minister Daniel Zeichner, Leon co-founder Henry Dimbleby, former government minister Rory Stewart, and the chair of the Prince's Countryside Fund, Heather Hancock.

The focus of the conference is 'putting people at the heart of countryside policy', and aims to include rural communities as part of the solution to improving the natural environment and public health, addressing climate change, housing people, and tackling food and energy security.

Attendees and speakers will include representatives from an array of rural affiliate and urban organisations.

READ MORE: Drivers face punishment after speeding crackdown in Welwyn Garden City

The event is organised by the Countryside Alliance Foundation, a charitable arm of the Countryside Alliance. The Countryside Alliance promotes hunting, shooting, angling, and "the rural way of life".

Nick Herbert, chairman of the Countryside Alliance and co-organiser of the event, said: “Future Countryside will be an advocate for a positive, forward-looking rural Britain, making the best of the change to come while building on the traditions and natural beauty we have inherited.”

“The choices we make now will shape our country, and its health, for centuries to come. Future Countryside 2023 is a step towards that.”

Julian Glover, chair of the government’s Landscapes Review and co-organiser of the event said: “We must make a positive decision to make the countryside a central and useful element in national life.

"We need a way to look up and look forward together, which is why, working with others I have been helping organise Future Countryside. 

“There’s no shortage of competing good ideas out there. What’s lacking is a place to join them together to answer that question: what is the countryside for. That is what Future Countryside sets out to do."