27 January 2025

Can Labour address rural poverty and disadvantage?

Vote for change

Rural communities voted for change in May’s General Election, electing dozens of new rural Labour MPs in the north of England and Liberal Democrat MPs in the rural south, writes Mark Shucksmith, Emeritus Professor of Planning at Newcastle University. But will the Labour Government’s mission-led approach be able to address rural voters’ concerns?

“Rural communities will be central to our mission to rebuild Britain,” promised the new Secretary of State for the Environment, Steve Reed, in the House of Commons. “Over a decade of national renewal, this Labour Government will serve the British public, wherever they live.” But this may prove challenging in rural areas where services are increasingly centralised and digitalised, and where the cost of essentials is higher – see my State of the Art Review for further exploration of this. How can Labour tackle rural poverty and ensure that rural citizens are not disadvantaged by where they live?

Jobs, careers and local growth plans?

To take one example, the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, Liz Kendall, announced plans to create a new jobs and careers service, merging Jobcentre Plus and the National Careers Service to focus on helping people “get into work and get on at work”.

This should help the many people living and working in rural areas who experience persistent low pay, irregular hours, insecure contracts and a lack of training and career progression. But how to achieve this when job centres and careers offices are typically distant, with public transport to reach them often non-existent?

The Secretary of State recognised the need to tailor her approach to local contexts and announced that she would give Mayors and local places, through local growth plans, “the responsibility and resources to design a joined-up health, work and skills offer that’s right for local people.” But will local and mayoral authorities reflect rural circumstances in their plans and practices? Will the Department for Work and Pensions and its new Labour Market Advisory Board consider how to adapt to diverse rural contexts and pilot new approaches to rural delivery?

In 2019, the House of Lords Select Committee on Rural Economies was sceptical that the then proposed local industrial strategies would be attuned to diverse rural contexts. They urged Government to involve rural stakeholders in policy development and monitoring, locally and nationally.

Helping with the cost of ‘essentials’

Where people cannot be lifted out of poverty through work, the higher cost of living and targeting welfare payments constitute additional challenges in rural areas.

First, the cost of essentials such as heating, food and transport is significantly higher in rural (and especially more remote) areas. The latest research by Loughborough University (2024) shows that the cost of essentials is between 14%-32% higher in rural and remote areas. A high-profile ‘essentials’ campaign led by the Trussell Trust and other charities argued that Universal Credit should at least cover the cost of essentials but currently falls far short. In rural areas this gap is even wider, implying that thresholds for eligibility and levels of benefits should be adjusted accordingly in rural and remote areas if essentials are to be covered.

Moreover, take-up of welfare entitlements is lower in smaller rural settlements. Researchers found that in urban areas 35% of those entitled to Pension Credit failed to claim, rising in rural areas to 42%, and in villages and hamlets to 54%. This matters not only because fewer rural citizens receive the support to which they are entitled, but because receipt of pension credit is now a gateway to other support, notably winter fuel allowance.

Public services and infrastructure

In his speech to the Commons, Steve Reed also pointed to the loss of public services and public infrastructure in rural England, accusing the Conservatives of “an abandonment of the countryside on a historic scale”. He promised more affordable homes, dentists, teachers, GPs, public transport, digital connectivity and energy security as well as well-paid jobs and clean rivers. The decline of public services in rural England over many years has been well-documented but addressing these issues requires coordinated action across the new Government’s ‘missions’ and across departments, as well as rural contextualisation.

Towards solutions

Rural voters will be looking for signs that their concerns are being addressed by the new Government, and to see their new MPs advocating energetically on their behalf. The last Labour Government was successful in reducing rural poverty and published a thoughtful Rural White Paper, only for its plans to be derailed by the Foot and Mouth outbreak in 2001. Will this Labour Government recognise today’s rural challenges and find ways to address them?

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