AMT Public

The government has responded to the report of the Rural Advocate, Dr Stuart Burgess, ‘England’s rural areas: steps to release their economic potential’ which was produced last summer.

The response is cross-departmental and also involved an input from Regional Development Agencies. Important points in the response are:

• Most of rural England is well-connected with strong links to nearby towns and cities and good access to local markets and job opportunities.

• Most rural areas have been performing well in both economic and social terms, but some rural areas have levels of economic performance below average and prospects for growth are more limited. These areas share a number of characteristics: often described in aggregate as ‘peripherality’.

• Economic development in a rural context needs to be based on an up-to-date, 21st century understanding of business in rural areas – one that is not constrained by a nostalgic view of the past.

• The Rural Advocate’s Report posited a potential productivity ‘gap’ of up to £347 billion, but the government responds that improved measures of productivity, and isolating the ‘London Effect’ suggests this concept of a ‘rural gap’ is misleading.

• Relative similarities between urban and rural areas outside of London, suggest that the current policy focus on regional and local delivery mechanisms will be much more appropriate than differentiated urban/rural policies.

Click here to download the full report.