Rural Stakeholders & Assessment of Success (Edexcel A Level Geography)

• Rural living is viewed differently by various demographic and ethnic groups

Contrasting Views on the Rural Living Space

• Rural areas will have different issues requiring management, including:
  • Higher levels of deprivation due to lower incomes and the seasonal nature of jobs
  • Declining rural services e.g. education, healthcare and retail
  • Poorer transport and communication infrastructure e.g. superfast broadband
  • Fewer affordable homes, exacerbated by lower wages
• Local and national strategies aim to resolve issues and manage change within rural living spaces
• National strategies include:
  • LEADER (Links between actions for the development of the rural economy)  programme & regeneration partnership 
    • Funded by the EU - the UK engaged with several LEADER programmes before BREXIT
    • Example of a coordinated and integrated approach to economic and community regeneration in a rural area
    • Uses local knowledge of the value of a place to promote grassroots, community-led rural development
  • Rural enterprise zones
    • In 2015, the government introduced 15 new rural enterprise zones to encourage the development of new businesses, enabling growth in these rural areas
    • The local government in each area can decide what incentives they give to businesses in an enterprise zone, such as:
      • A business rate holiday
      • More streamlined planning regulations
      • Superfast broadband
  • National investments in mobile networks and high-speed broadband have allowed more people to work in rural areas
• Local strategies include:
  • Landowners and farmers are diversifying 
    • Over 60% of UK farms have diversified
    • Farms may start to produce and sell speciality cheeses, farm unusual animals, or even convert their buildings for other uses (e.g. galleries, farm shops)
    • The most common forms of diversification are:
      • Renewable energy (29%)
      • Property letting (15%)
      • Holiday lets (12%)
    • This creates more economic opportunities in the area for young people in the countryside
  • Local authorities granting planning permission to particular groups can influence the future of rural areas
    • For example, granting planning permission to land developers that plan to include affordable homes for local people and keep second-home ownership to a minimum
      • Wealthier short-term residents purchasing second homes in popular rural areas, increase high prices for local residents, creating tension

Case study - Lake District Rural Revival Partnerships

• Established in 2006, the ‘Lake District Rural Revival Partnerships’ were formed to: 
• Facilitate management of the area 
• Involve representatives from the public, private, community and voluntary sectors (25 organisations are involved)
• Reduce the rural economic decline in the Lake District region
• Strategies include:
• Developing land management and diversification
• Developing opportunities to create social awareness
• Investigating the ways young people can be involved and develop their skills 
• Working together to create a greener environment 
• Ensuring mobile coverage, superfast broadband and Wi-Fi service for communities to keep in close contact 
• Investing in flood resilience measures
• Encouraging farmers to raise local breeds of sheep
• The Partnership is a successful example of how the interests of multiple stakeholders can be managed in a rural area
• There are many competing land users in the Lake District e.g. farmers, industry owners, visitors and residents
• The needs of the wildlife, local heritage and tourists are all considered in the decision-making
• The Fell Futures is one of the projects addressing a nationally identified skills shortage in the Lakes
• It has helped train 12 apprentices and 30 new volunteers in skills such as dry-stone walling, habitat conservation and forestry
• It has enabled every apprentice to gain employment, with 90% working in Cumbria

• The success of managing change in diverse rural communities can be judged using four variables:
  • Economic e.g. increasing average incomes and the levels of unemployment
  • Social e.g. reducing levels of deprivation and creating affordable housing
  • Demographic changes e.g. improving life expectancy and reduced health deprivation
  • Environmental e.g. reducing pollution levels and the extent of protected areas
• The economic variable:
  • Often the driving force behind changing rural areas
  • National benefits sometimes are seen as more important than local views e.g. improving the transport infrastructure between urban areas, such as HS2
• The social variable:
  • Any change should cater to the needs of locals as well as newcomers to the area
  • Locals should not be excluded or forced out of their area
  • Declining rural services (e.g. healthcare, banking and retail) make everyday living increasingly difficult for pensioners 
• The environmental variable: 
  • Most rural communities have important natural and historic heritage, which encourages tourism but needs protecting 
  • An enhanced environment will attract people to live, work or visit the place
• The variable for demographic changes:
  • A decrease in the overall numbers of any age group, in an area, is not a positive indicator 
    • The challenges of rural areas may have caused these groups to leave e.g. young people leave in search of better-paid employment

• Managing change in diverse rural communities involves a wide range of stakeholders with different realities and objectives e.g.
  • Residents
  • Local government
  • National government
  • Local businesses
• All stakeholders can be divided into two groups:
  • Groups that directly affect the management or handling of the issue
  • Groups that are affected by the management of the issue
  • These groups may exercise a positive role e.g. groups keen to develop derelict land into commercial properties
  • Groups may have a negative role e.g. the protestors who will lose out if the scheme goes ahead, like locals who may want new affordable housing
• Each stakeholder may view the issue and how best to manage it quite differently 
  • For example, the local government may want to commercially develop some derelict land for economic purposes, while residents might want affordable housing 
• Each stakeholder will have their own:
  • Particular view of what represents success and failure
  • Set of criteria for assessing whether an issue is managed successfully or not
• A stakeholder’s lived experience of a place can affect their judgement on whether strategies have successfully managed the changes to the place, as well as the image of it

Stakeholders’ Views on Rural Living Spaces