rural economies

‘Our rural economies have most to fear through the uncertainty of Brexit’ – SLE

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A Scottish story but equally applicable to England…

The twin tests of Brexit and maintaining Scotland’s high-quality food production should not detract from the biggest challenge of our time – halting climate change.

This is according to Mark Tennant, chairman of Scottish Land and Estates (SLE), which represents rural businesses, said serious choices of priorities lie ahead both for government and food producers as the clock ticks towards the EU trade deal deadline in January.

Tennant was speaking at SLE’s annual conference. He said it was now incumbent on farming businesses and land managers to ‘go further and go faster’ in their contributions to combating carbon emissions.

“Yet, as hard as these challenges are, we must not take our focus away from climate change – and it is incumbent on farmers, land managers and estates to continue to help Scotland meet its targets in this area.

“As we transition from the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), there is an opportunity to enact a huge change in how we deliver from our land.

Health experts cast doubt on UK hopes for holiday ‘air bridges’

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I have mixed views about this, story, but one thing I do hope is that more people might choose to holiday in the UK,  giving our rural tourism sector a much needed shot in the arm. This article tells us:

Public health experts and officials have warned that the idea of “air bridge” links between the UK and overseas holiday destinations may prove impossible this summer, amid continued concern over how they could operate safely.

A number of Conservative MPs are pushing for air bridges – mutual agreements with other countries to allow travellers to fly in and out without coronavirus quarantine restrictions – ahead of the imposition of the UK’s 14-day quarantine system next week.

The home secretary, Priti Patel, is to announce how the quarantine process will work in a statement to the Commons on Wednesday, and is coming under significant pressure from Tory MPs to signal a willingness to implement air bridges amid fears over the new measures’ effect on the tourism and hospitality sectors.

Writing in Wednesday’s Telegraph alongside the transport secretary, Grant Shapps, Patel said: “We owe it to the victims of Covid-19 to impose quarantine,” arguing it was crucial and tourism would be up and running faster if tough measures were taken.

But progress has so far been slow. When the government announced the quarantine plans on 22 May, air bridges were mentioned among “further options” to be explored. There have been no updates since.

Vast majority of rural businesses confident they can reopen safely, survey finds

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This is a Scottish story but I suspect we would find the same resilience in English rural businesses. It tells us:

The survey by Scottish Land and Estates (SLE) of 250 firms found 56% are confident they can reopen all of their business safely, while 36% are confident part of their business can restart while adhering to social distancing measures.

The businesses questioned ranged from the tourism to farming sectors, with little variation in confidence.

However, those involved in the food and drink industry and hospitality were slightly less confident about being able to safely open.

Sarah-Jane Laing, chief executive of SLE, said: “This survey confirms that rural businesses are ready to help restart Scotland’s rural economy safely. “Over 90% of rural businesses who responded to our survey are confident they can maintain social distancing measures if they reopen all or part of their business.

UK lockdown: ‘Untold anxiety’ over police rural exercise advice

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Looks like rural communities are still not yearning for the return of the visitor. The swathe the virus is cutting through rural economies (see two of the stories below) suggests this might be a dangerous line to hold for too long. 

Rural groups say police guidance that people can drive to the countryside to exercise will cause “untold anxieties”.

The National Rural Crime Network and other groups said it risks spreading the virus through unnecessary journeys.

Driving to the countryside for a walk is “likely to be reasonable” if more time is spent walking than driving, the guidance says.

Police groups say the advice is not for the public – it is meant to help officers decide when to charge someone.

The letter challenging the guidance is signed by the National Rural Crime Network, the Countryside Alliance, the National Farmers’ Union, and the Country Land and Business Association, who say they represent “many millions of residents and thousands of businesses” in England and Wales. 

They said they receive “hundreds of concerned messages a day” about people flouting the laws restricting movements, and say there are serious concerns this guidance will “encourage even more people to carry out unnecessarily long journeys”.

They have written to Justice Secretary Robert Buckland demanding a change to the pandemic advice.

“The key message needs to remain: stay home, save lives. Anything which complicates that message is unhelpful,” the letter says.

The key areas to look at in easing the UK coronavirus lockdown

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This is a fascinating article. It goes on from the initial analysis below to profile areas predicted to be worst affected using an RSA methodology. Described as follows:

This approach calculates the total number of jobs at risk in each local area by identifying the number of jobs in each industry in that area multiplied by the estimated percentage of those that have been furloughed on the Government’s Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS). The RSA then divide this by the total number of jobs in each local area to calculate the percentage of jobs at risk.

The top 5 worst affected are all rural in order: Richmondshire, Eden, East Lindsey, South Lakeland and Derbyshire Dales. This shows the disproportionate impact of the virus on rural economies. It is a call to arms for those responsible for economic policy.  We know that rural areas as a consequence of their relative isolation find it difficult to recover from economic shocks and therefore the long term legacy of this trend could well be the hollowing out of rural economies.

By way of a prelude to this deeply worrying list the article tells us:

More than 20,000 people have died from Covid-19 in NHS hospitals and thousands more in care homes. But there are growing concerns about the economic impact of lockdown. Gerard Lyons, Johnson’s economics adviser when he was London mayor, warned on Sunday the UK could be the hardest-hit western economy if it does not unlock soon. 

The Labour leader, Keir Starmer, also called on ministers to start talking to teachers, businesses, trade unions and town hall leaders and open “honest conversations with the public about what new arrangements might look like”. Unions insist worker safety must not be compromised by any changes and questions remain about public appetite for risking a new peak of contagion, but plans to modify restrictions are starting to emerge.

Openreach sets out plan to provide 227 rural communities with full fibre broadband by next year

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And still more evidence related to the story above…..

Beaminster in Dorset, Clitheroe in Lancashire and the cathedral city of Ely in Cambridgeshire are among the first of more than 200 British market towns and villages in line to receive an ultrafast full fibre broadband connection within the next 14 months, the Telegraph can reveal.

Openreach, the BT-owned operator of Britain’s biggest broadband Internet network, will this week set out details of 227 rural communities which will be among the first to receive cutting edge full fibre connections under a new investment programme.

The announcement forms part of Openreach’s plan to extend full fibre broadband to the British countryside as well as urban areas, which are cheaper and easier to supply because of the greater density of population and shorter distances involved….

Independent commission hears evidence on how North Yorkshire’s rural economy can achieve its potential

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More power to the elbow of North Yorkshire for drawing attention to the challenges its rural communities face through this innovative approach. This story tells us:

North Yorkshire’s rural communities are full of economic potential but longstanding obstacles needed to be cleared to allow them to realise it, an independent commission has been told.

The North Yorkshire Rural Commission, set up specifically to look at the challenges facing North Yorkshire’s rural communities, has heard evidence from small businesses and large organisations on the county’s jobs and economy. 

The eight commissioners tasked with investigating key areas of concern in England’s largest county, 85 per cent of which is classed as rural or super sparse, heard that the big ticket items which would help unlock the rural economy included an overhaul of public transport, education linking learning to business start-up opportunities, significant investment in mobile and superfast broadband and devolution.

The first to give evidence was former farmer, Mark Pybus, who highlighted the issues around rural broadband. Mr Pybus started to diversify on his family farm near Catterick 15 years ago and is now the manager of Crabtree Hall Business Centre. 

The centre employs 32 people and offers serviced office space for small businesses alongside a café and a children’s nursery. 

But Mr Pybus said broadband has been an issue from early on.

“We opened the business centre in 2007 but by 2010 the broadband we had was not fit for purpose so we started looking for an alternative. We invested in and installed our own super-fast connection in 2012/13 and Crabtree Community Broadband (CCB) followed.”

Mr Pybus said this provided affordable superfast connectivity to businesses and villages, predominantly west of the A1, as far as Masham and Leyburn.

Partnership to offer national UK agricultural knowledge service

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I really like SRUC and rural champs like Sarah Skerratt and Jane Atterton so although this might not be directly their part of the organisation I still wanted to draw this new service to your attention. This article tells us:

Agri-business across the UK will reportedly enjoy greater access to the latest independent advice backed by research and innovation, through a new partnership between Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC) and ADAS, the independent agricultural and environmental consultancy.

Through the joint venture, new and existing partners will be able to use research at ADAS and SRUC – which includes SAC Consulting, their specialist consultancy and diagnostic services, as well as education and training courses. The partnership will also reportedly be the vehicle for more collaborative research.

The joint venture will operate in fields such as agriculture and climate change, soil health, synthesis of evidence to support policy development, data, ecological modelling and genomics, sustainable diets and food production systems, animal welfare and sustainable food supply.

High rents in English cities forcing young to stay in small towns

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Every cloud has a silver lining. We know that there are more business per head of population in rural places. One of the ongoing challenges has been a lack of a workforce. The in some ways regrettable trend of young people finding it harder to move to the City does provide rural businesses with a richer range of workforce opportunities.

One of the defining patterns of English life in which young people move from small towns with limited prospects to bigger cities to seek their fortune is in dramatic decline, research has revealed.

More young people are getting stuck where they grew up or went to university because they cannot afford rents in places where they can earn more money, according to the Resolution Foundation thinktank. It found the number of people aged 25 to 34 starting a new job and moving home in the last year had fallen 40% over the last two decades.

Whereas previous generations were able to move to big cities such as London and Manchester or regional hubs like Leeds and Bristol to develop their careers, the current millennial generation is enduring a slump in mobility caused by rising rents, which can wipe out the financial gains of a move.

Even moves over short distances were barely worth making, the data showed. A person on average earnings in Scarborough paying average rent would have been 29% better off if they had moved to Leeds in 1997 and paid average rent and earned average money. In 2018, rising rents and stagnant wages means the benefit after taking into account rent was just 4%.

Incomes grow fastest in rural Scotland

This is really interesting. Although starting from a low base the rise in incomes in the Borders is outstripping everywhere else. I think this is because rural economies are more resilient. My salty old sea dog friend and when he could behave himself sometime mentor (the sadly departed Patrick Browne – who amongst other things invented the coastal communities alliance) used to say they were like a neap tide. Now there’s a thought! Still to keep things in perspective have a look at the gap between incomes in the Borders and Westminster profiled in the article itself.

 

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