As part of its latest drive to boost local businesses in an attempt to revitalise the rural economy, the Westminster government has announced major grants to Cumbria and the North East of England.

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Farming Minister Jim Paice announced a £3.5 million grant to Cumbria’s Rural Growth Network on Monday (20th August), which he said would go to funding 900 new jobs in 500 new businesses. On Tuesday, he announced £3.2 million funding which is expected to create 300 new jobs and businesses in Northumberland and Durham.

The Rural Growth Networks are groups “Set up to help rural areas overcome the barriers to economic growth such as a shortage of business premises and poor broadband access,” according to Defra. The newly formed networks make up part a £165 million cash injection by the government, aimed at stimulating growth and creating job prospects in rural areas.

The farming minister made his announcements on a ‘rural roadshow’ during which he liaised with local business leaders, farmers and councillors to hear about issues affecting the rural food and farming sectors. Mr Paice also met with representatives from local Rural and Farming Networks, another new initiative which has been set up to provide “a hotline to government” for local business leaders.

Speaking on his rural roadshow, Mr Paice said, “There are particular challenges to running a business in a remote area.  Too often, business people are held back by not being able to find work premises, having no access to superfast broadband, or being unable to expand their skills without travelling into a city. The Rural Growth Network will take down these barriers to growth and enable local businesses to turn their ambitions into reality. 

 “The Rural Roadshow is a great opportunity to meet some of the farmers and businesses, discuss the challenges they face and take them back to Westminster.”

Although the government is insistent that its new strategies will increase development in rural regions and the Farming Minister has predicted the food sector will lead the UK out of recession, the approach has been criticised as being overly business-centric. Whilst businesses in rural regions may benefit from the new networks and investments, rural communities are suffering from a deficit of essential services, which may not be best addressed by providing funding for entrepreneurs.

Vital amenities such as pubs and post offices, rural banks and leisure facilities are closing in rural communities, public transport links are being scrapped as the government withdraws support for subsidised bus routes, which is leading to operators reducing bus and train services. In the past year a number of studies have shown rural residents face a higher cost of living but benefit less from public spending and have less access to education and healthcare services.

At the beginning of the year, MPs in the All-party Parliamentary Group on rural Services met with the Prime Minister to raise pressing concerns over the erosion of services in rural areas. They said the countryside’s higher youth unemployment, lower wages, higher taxes and fewer services and amenities are the result of ‘rural neglect’.

Although the government has moved to support businesses, especially food and farming businesses in the countryside, deeper changes may need to be made to achieve true sustainable development in rural Britain.

Earlier this month, respected food policy professor Tim Lang suggested the government’s approach to the food sector has been naïve and unsustainable. He said that, rather than encouraging food businesses in rural regions to produce luxury goods and pushing producers and processors to chase lucrative export markets, more of a focus should be placed on developing an environmentally sustainable, socially just food system.

He said, “We need to shift to an ecologically sound food policy. This is not happening. A few niche products is not the same thing as a sustainable food system,” and called on ministers to work towards a “decarbonised, water reduced, socially just food system.”

Scottish government announces rural funding boost

Scottish Rural Affairs Minister Richard Lochhead today announced new farming entrants will benefit from a £5 million boost. The money is being made available as part of the Scottish government’s £20 million Rural Priorities funding project, launched in 2008.

The rural affairs minister said funding will go to support and create around 1,200 jobs across Scotland. He said, “This latest round of Rural Priorities funding will safeguard and create around 1,200 jobs in 11 regions across Scotland, vital to sustaining our rural economy. 

“The funding will support a wide variety of projects [including] investing in a new entrant farmer’s sheep milking business in South Lanarkshire. I am also delighted that almost £5 million of this funding is targeted at supporting new entrants to farming, a key priority which the Government has outlined to enhance the future of Scottish agriculture. A further £11 million of the total will support climate change targets, one of our national outcomes, which will also help improve the viability of existing farming businesses.”

Since it was launched five years ago, the Rural Priorities funding project has distributed £548 million worth of Scottish Government and EU funding. Funding has gone to support a range of projects including slurry storage, milking facilities and workers’ employment for farmers, a new path network connecting local villages, a school and the visitor centre for Callanish stone circle on the Isle of Lewis and on-farm diversification projects including setting up tourist accommodation at a farm in Fife.

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