SEPTEMBER 2001

Online
Geo file 408

Neil Punnett

UK rural issues
Over the past 10 years, concern has Figure 1: Population of England: % in rural areas
grown over the changes affecting
rural Britain. In 1995 the
Conservative government published
a White Paper on Rural England,
with the aim of boosting economic
growth. The 1997 general election
led to a change in the ruling party.
After 18 years of Conservative rule,
a Labour government was voted
into power. Several rural
parliamentary seats that had been
Conservative for generations
returned Labour MPs. The new
government had a mandate for
change, but it soon encountered
problems with its policy for rural
areas, especially with regard to
farming policy and the Labour
government’s opposition to fox
hunting. A pressure group called the
Countryside Alliance formed, Figure 2: Comparison of the age structure of the rural population with other districts
organising petitions and of England 1998
demonstrations against government
interference. In November 2000 a
new Rural White Paper was
published, mirroring the concerns
of five years previously.

This Geofile considers the conflicts

of interest and issues now affecting
the countryside, and examines the
proposals for tackling them.

Pressures for development

(a) The background
Development pressures have
affected and shaped the countryside
for centuries. However, the pace of
change has never been quicker than
in the past century. New
agricultural techniques have
changed the character of rural
Britain, transforming patterns of
employment and altering the land
itself. Demographic changes and
development of the national
infrastructure, together with
changing standards of living and
public expectations, have increased
urban Britain’s influence on rural countryside a year were built on In the same year the Agriculture Act
society. during the 1930s. This was largely protected farmland from
due to improvements in public and development, in order to safeguard
(b) Planning constraints private transport that freed people food production.
During the 1920s and 1930s a from having to live close to their
sudden upsurge in urban sprawl place of work. Effective planning Following the Town and Country
resulted in the loss of large areas of constraints were not introduced Planning Act, ‘green belts’ were
countryside, as over four million until 1947, with the Town and established around London and
new homes were built across Britain Country Planning Act. This other major cities in order to restrict
in an unplanned, uncontrolled required local authorities to prepare building and preserve areas of
expansion. 25,000 hectares of plans of development in their areas. countryside for farming and

Geofile Online © Nelson Thornes 2001

September 2001 no.408 UK rural issues
Figure 3: Article from The Guardian, 6
January 2001
The trend of rich people buying up all
the available housing in the countryside
and forcing poorer young families to
move to cities is increasing
dramatically, according to research.
Mark Shucksmith, of Aberdeen
University, told the Institute of British
Geographers’ conference: “Rural areas
are now ruled by market forces, so the
rich will live in the countryside and the
poor in the urban areas. The social glue
that holds rural communities together is
falling apart.”
The situation has been made worse by
the rich incomers taking over local
communities by forming the majority on
parish councils, being able to lobby
against any new housing
developments, especially preventing
“village homes for village people”, and
by doing so “inadvertently threatening
the social, cultural and economic
sustainability of what they are keen to
preserve.”
The effect on young people was
particularly severe, with those wanting
to stay in the countryside having to live
with their parents. It was estimated that
80,000 affordable homes were needed
in rural England between 1990 and
1995, but only 17,700 were provided
between 1990 and 1997. The
government’s recent Rural White Paper
had set a target of 9,000 affordable
homes a year being built in rural areas,
but this was not enough to prevent a
continuation of the trend.
recreational purposes. By 1980 green
belts covered 1.8 million hectares.
The amount of countryside being
taken for building had fallen to
about 5,000 hectares a year, one-
sixth of the rate during the 1930s.
(c) Rural development
During the 1980s planning laws
were gradually relaxed by the
Conservative government, which
was opposed to rigid government
controls and preferred to allow
market forces to operate. There was
growing demand for houses, both
generally and more particularly in
the countryside. Between 1981 and
1991 around 770,000 people moved
to rural areas in England, and the
percentage of the population living
in rural areas increased from 24.1%
to 27.6% (Figure 1).
Who were these new rural dwellers?
Many were commuters – rapidly
increasing car ownership, plus the
growing network of motorways and
dual carriageways (themselves a
Geofile Online © Nelson Thornes 2001
pressure on the countryside)
allowed people to undertake longer
journeys to work and to enjoy the
better quality of life that the
countryside is often perceived to
offer. Other new rural dwellers
included owners of second homes,
and those retiring to the
countryside. The proportion of
older people is slightly higher in
rural areas than in the rest of the
country – in 1998 18% of the rural
population was over 65 years old,
compared with 15% of the urban
population (see Figure 2).
(d) The Impact of Counter-
urbanisation
Counter-urbanisation involves the
movement of people with urban
attitudes into rural society, where
those attitudes are not always
shared. The conflicting attitudes to
fox hunting is one example. The
income levels of ‘incomers’ whose
jobs are in big cities tend to be
much higher than those of people
who have been brought up in the
countryside – most rural
employment tends to be poorly paid.
The influx of wealthy newcomers
has resulted in prices of rural
housing spiralling out of the reach
of local people. This, together with
the search for work, has forced
many young adults to move away
from their villages in order to find
cheaper accommodation elsewhere,
in towns and cities. The sale of rural
council houses and a lack of housing
association homes mean there is no
accommodation for many rural
people setting up home for the first
time (Figure 3).
The influx of newcomers has not by
any means been completely
negative. It may for instance have
helped preserve services in rural
areas. Although many of them may
work in urban areas, their children
will attend local schools and they
will use local services such as the
general stores, surgery and pub. The
Rural Development Commission
concluded its Survey of Rural
Services in 1997 by saying that the
level of service provision had
changed little between 1991 and
1997, other than a steady decline in
the number of rural post offices.
This represents a marked change
over the previous three decades,
when many rural services declined
rapidly.
The crisis in agriculture
Farming’s share in the national
economy is in long-term decline,
and this trend is likely to continue.
This has brought social and
economic distress to many people,
especially in some of the remoter
rural areas. In 1975 3% of the UK’s
gross domestic product was
contributed by agriculture; by 2000
this had fallen to just 1%. This
decline has been due to relatively
slow growth in demand for
foodstuffs, and the lower relative
prices for agricultural commodities,
which have increased far less quickly
than inflation, largely because of the
impact of technological changes. In
addition, the economics of the food
supply chain appear to favour the
large retailers, rather than the food
producers. Making matters worse,
farming has been hit by a series of
health scares that have caused public
alarm and reduced demand. In the
early 1990s fears over salmonella in
eggs were quickly dwarfed by the
impact of the BSE crisis. British beef
exports were banned world-wide and
the national beef herd was reduced
as farmers sought other sources of
income. In 2000, swine vesicular
disease hit the British pig herd, and
in February 2001 one of the most
dreaded livestock diseases of all, foot
and mouth, reappeared – the first
major outbreak since the 1960s.
Across Britain, smoke rose from
giant funeral pyres as thousands of
slaughtered animals were cremated
in a desperate effort to halt the
spread of the disease. All livestock
exports from the UK were banned.
Farmers’ leaders warned that many
smaller farmers would be driven out
of business by the effects of the
epidemic. Farmers already have one
of the highest suicide rates of any
profession in the UK, a clear
indication of high levels of stress. Is
this succession of diseases the result
of ill fortune, or does it reflect a
deeper malaise within the UK’s
agricultural sector?
Despite the range of problems facing
British farming during the 1990s,
the continuing decline in
agricultural employment (Figure 4),
the provision of subsidies through
the EU’s Common Agricultural
Policy, and a wide range of
restructuring activity helped to
sustain levels of income per head in
the farming community. However,
the severity of the crisis of the late

Figure 4: Trends in the UK’s
agricultural labour force,1970–2000
Figure 5: Trends in total income from
farming, 1973–2000
1990s has meant that average farm
incomes fell in 1999 and 2000 to
their lowest point for over 30 years
(Figure 5). The weakness of the
single European currency, the euro,
against sterling was affecting UK
farm exports even before the foot
and mouth epidemic led to a total
export ban.
For many farmers, restructuring has
been essential for survival.
Restructuring has included:
• diversification, such as farm
shops, organic farming, pick your
own, nurseries and garden
centres, bed & breakfast, farm
visitors’ centres, and also off-
farm income through part-time
jobs
• more efficient utilisation of
labour
• increased adoption of new
business arrangements, such as
contracting and collaboration
Geofile Online © Nelson Thornes 2001
September 2001 no.408 UK rural issues
• a shift towards larger-scale
enterprises, but also an
increasing role for smaller, part-
time farms.
In 2000 over a fifth of UK full-time
farms received income from
diversified activities. The percentage
varies both by size of farm and by
region. It is higher for smaller farms
(23%) than for larger enterprises
(17%) and substantially higher in the
west (27%) than in the north (14%).
Employment
(a) Trends
Rural areas in the UK have
experienced growth in total
employment since 1971, and rural
employment has grown faster than
urban employment. Major trends
since 1981 have included:
• a decline in agriculture’s share of
employment in rural areas, from
6% to 4% of the total rural
employment
• a decline in the employment
share of other primary industries
such as mining and quarrying,
from 2% to 1%
• a decline in manufacturing’s
share of employment, from 24%
to 20%
• an increase in employment in the
service sector, from 60% to 71%.
Increased job opportunities in
leisure and recreation as general
incomes have risen have played
an important part in this
increase.
There is a high proportion of small
enterprises in rural areas, with over
90% of all rural firms employing
fewer than 10 people. Large firms
(employing over 100 people) are less
common in rural than in urban areas
(1.4% of rural firms, compared with
2.2% of urban firms). The higher
rate of small firm formation in rural
areas may partly be the result of the
perceived higher quality of life in
rural areas. Almost two-thirds of
new rural firms are set up by people
who have moved into the area,
compared with only one-third of
new urban firms. 75% of those who
moved to rural areas stated that the
environment was of at least some
importance in their decision.
(b) Employment growth
The successful growth of
employment in many rural areas,
despite the decline in agricultural
employment, is a result of the
following factors:
• rising demand for leisure and
tourism activities as disposable
incomes increase
• the movement of people into
rural areas, especially those with
easy access to centres of
employment
• developments in
telecommunications which allow
people to work from home via e-
mail, fax, video-conferencing and
the Internet
• increased demand for rural
products such as craft and
horticultural items
• constraints on expansion in
urban areas.
(c) Leisure and tourism
Tourism is of particular economic
significance to rural areas. Rural
tourism supports over 400,000 jobs
and generates over £12 billion –
nearly a quarter of the total value of
the tourism industry in the UK. The
benefits of tourism are unevenly
distributed between rural areas.
Some areas experience problems of
congestion and environmental
degradation, while other areas do
not fulfil their potential because
visitors are unaware of the full range
of attractions in the area.
Tourism is well suited to the rural
environment, since it is often
directly related to the countryside,
its scenic attractions and its way of
life. Properly managed, tourism
offers many opportunities for
income generation and can help to
sustain local communities and local
services. Bad weather in the crucial
school summer holiday period can
have a great effect on income from
tourism – visitors either go abroad,
or stay at home or remain in their
resorts where they can shelter from
the elements.
The money spent by tourists and day
visitors represents a significant
transfer of income from urban to
rural areas. Total annual spending
by day visitors to rural areas is £7
billion, compared with £38 billion in
urban areas. The average amount
spent by each day visitor is a little
over £5, the single largest item
purchased being food and drink.
(d) Rural unemployment
Unemployment in rural areas is
generally lower than in the rest of
September 2001 no.408 UK rural issues
the country (3.4% in rural areas in
2000, compared with 4.9% in non-
rural areas). However, some remoter
rural areas with less potential for
leisure-based employment have been
less able to adapt to the decline of
agriculture, and here unemployment
levels can be much higher. Parts of
the Scottish Highlands and Islands,
the Southern Uplands, Cumbria,
Northumberland, mid-Wales,
Cornwall, Devon and Kent all suffer
to some extent from their relative
remoteness. In all rural areas,
seasonality of employment is a
problem.
Poverty and social exclusion do exist
in rural areas, but often at a scale
where they are masked by generally
higher levels of affluence. Poverty
can be harder to tackle than in urban
areas, because the individuals
concerned are geographically
dispersed.
The 2000 Rural White
Paper
In November 2000 the government
published its Rural White paper
which set out an overall aim “To
sustain and enhance the distinctive
environment, economy and social
fabric of the English countryside for
the benefit of all.” Its five national
rural objectives were:
1. To facilitate the development of
dynamic and sustainable
economies in the countryside and
to tackle rural poverty.
2. To maintain and stimulate
communities and to secure access
to services which is equitable in
all circumstances, for those who
live and work in the countryside.
3. To conserve and enhance rural
landscapes and the diversity and
abundance of wildlife.
4. To increase opportunities for
people to enjoy the countryside.
5. To promote government
responsiveness to rural
communities through better
working together between central
departments and local
government.
Within Objective One the
government pledged support for
market towns as central places,
providing £37 million to fund their
regeneration. The White Paper
sought to ensure that each market
town has as a minimum the
following services:
Geofile Online © Nelson Thornes 2001
• convenience shopping Such detailed planning, if achieved,
• a farmers’ market would restore rural services and
• at least one bank/building society make an important contribution to
with a 24-hour automatic cash boosting farm incomes.
point
• at least one surgery, dentist and
pharmacy Conclusion
• a secondary school The countryside of the UK faces
• permanent library services several issues and conflicts of
• an arts venue interest. A way of life which has
• sports pitches changed only very slowly over
• a weekly cinema centuries has been subject to rapid
• pubs and at least one restaurant change within a generation.
• adequate employment sites Countryside issues are now an
• a Job Centre important political issue, and the
• a Citizens’ Advice bureau last two governments have both
• out-of-hours childcare published White Papers carrying
• access to district and county proposals for tackling these issues.
officers Following its victory in the General
• a range of overnight Election of June 2001, the new
accommodation Labour government established a
• a minimum of a part-time police Department for the Environment,
office and fire station Food and Rural Affairs. This
• a complete range of housing underlined the importance attached
• regular bus services to the to rural issues.
surrounding villages and major
towns.
Bibliography
Objective One also provides for an Punnett, N. (1996) ‘Changes in
additional £24 million for redundant Rural Britain’, Geofile No. 289.
farm buildings to enable greater Rae, A. (1998) ‘Changes in UK
diversification, the launching of a Villages’, Geofile No. 325.
joint government/industry task force The following website:
to investigate farming costs, and a www.maff.gov.uk/erdp
seven-year programme to help
farmers with marketing.
Within Objective Two the
government pledged to retain basic
local services, providing a £15
million Community Service Fund to
safeguard or re-establish basic
services. Rural post offices would be
maintained, with increased services
such as banking. Village schools
would be retained with increased
funding and Internet provision for
all of them. £132 million in Rural
Bus Subsidy Grants would support
otherwise uneconomic bus services,
along with additional funding for
rural rail partnerships. The planning
system would be changed to secure
more affordable homes to the extent
that in small villages there should be
one affordable home for every new-
build home.
Focus Questions
1. Outline the pressures for development in rural areas in the UK.
2. Discuss the impact of counter-urbanisation on rural areas.
3. Discuss possible solutions to the issues facing rural areas.