Government must show more ambition for the countryside

Much has been made in recent days of how Labour’s red wall continues to crumble. Eleven years into a Tory Government and the Conservatives are winning by-elections in Labour heartlands. It is extraordinary stuff.

But Boris Johnson, and the government he leads, should be keeping a much closer eye on their rural heartlands, where many are wondering if the ‘levelling up agenda’ applies to them. Indeed, if rural communities are once again forgotten the Prime Minister risks undermining his own ‘blue wall’ for years to come.

The lazy stereotype is that rural communities are wealthy and ‘quaint’ with little need of investment or support.

However, the reality is that many of the UK’s poorest regions are predominantly rural.

Due to lack of investment, the rural economy is now 18% less productive than the national average.

As a result, hundreds of thousands of

jobs have not been created, and the opportunity for prosperity missed entirely. Indeed, righting this productivity imbalance would add £43bn to the national economy. The fact that the government has no coherent policy to grow the rural economy simply isn’t good enough.

Nearly half a million homes and around 125,000 businesses in rural areas have poor broadband, and Ofcom figures show 4G data coverage at 86% in urban areas vs 46% in rural areas. Without strong connectivity, full access to an increasingly digital economy will remain out of reach.

Political ill will must be growing too, at the disconnect between what ministers say about boosting the country’s green credentials, and the action taken to help rural communities play their part. A succession of treeplanting photo ops will do little to provide the incentive needed to power a green revolution.

The Country Land and Business Association (CLA), which represents thousands of farmers, landowners and rural businesses, wants to see the Government show some ambition for economic development in rural areas.

At the heart of that ambition should be encouraging entrepreneurship. For example, pubs that have closed due to a lack of viability should be given permitted development rights, allowing the buildings to be used as rural business hubs for entrepreneurs and small business owners.

Government should lean on network operators to deliver the much-talked about improved coverage now, not in four years’ time.

With the worst of the pandemic hopefully behind us, the Prime Minister needs to make good on his promise to build back better.

His desire to level up the country is the right one, but this must work for the countryside as well as industrial centres. There are jobs to be created, businesses to support and – as far as the Prime Minister is concerned – rural votes still to be earned.

Mark Bridgeman, President, the Country Land and Business Association (CLA)