We can help boost the rural economy

9:00pm Wednesday 2nd July 2008

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WORCESTERSHIRE’S “entrepreneurial culture and economic diversity” has been praised in a new Government report commissioned in the aftermath of last year’s flooding and the foot-and-mouth outbreak.

Its author, Dr Stuart Burgess, the Government’s Rural Advocate and chairman of the Commission For Rural Communities, has also underlined a host of recommendations for unlocking the county’s potential. These, he believes, would help Worcestershire and other of the UK’s rural communities add up to a further £347 billion to the national economy.

Speaking about his paper, which was designed to investigate ways of strengthening rural economies in the wake of flooding and foot-and-mouth, Dr Burgess said: “In my visits to rural areas I am constantly reminded how enterprising people are and the diversity of successful firms and resilient communities we have. My report records their economic strengths and the substantial contribution they already make to the nation’s economic performance, with more than 30 per cent of England’s businesses based in rural areas.

“These firms generate £325 billion for the economy, yet when you compare this with the output of the same amount of companies in urban areas, you realise there is a lot of potential yet to be realised.

“This unfulfilled potential could be anywhere between £236 and £347 billion per annum and we need to make sure better support is provided to bridge this gap.”

Dr Burgess believes economic contributions could be more than doubled by lifting the performance of medium and larger firms by attracting more investment and by strengthening the capacity to innovate.

This, in turn, will help reduce worklessness and poverty in rural areas, close the persistent gap between rural and urban wages and make more communities resilient against future economic and environmental shocks.