1.3.8 Rural Management and the Challenges of Continuity and Change Flashcards
• Managing rural change and inequality in diverse communities including issues of housing, transport and service provision, including digital connectivity • Ongoing challenges in rural places where regeneration / rebranding are absent or have failed or have created conflict • New challenges of managing change in some rural communities associated with counter-urbanisation and second home ownership, and possible actions
What demographic live in the Terling/Chelmsford rural-urban fringe?
- Families with young children
- White British and not diverse
- Fairly wealthy, working in tertiary industry in the city
How has the Terling/Chelmsford rural-urban fringe changed in the past 30 years?
- Decline in farming
- New houses added to village
- Population increased
- Become a commuter town for tertiary workers
What is the age structure of Terling?
- Mostly families with young children
- Highest proportion in 35-45 and then 5-15
What is the ethnicity of Terling?
97% is White British
What is the wealth and employment like in Terling?
- 46% employed full-time
- 79% owner occupied houses
How has a population increased threatened services in Terling?
- Services in Chelmsford and London are easy to access and better
- People drive their own cars so are very mobile
- Decline in demand for bus services
- Closure of village shops and cuts to bus services
Why is the rural-urban fringe a difficult place to live for low wage earners, single-parent families and the elderly?
- Expensive place to live so some cannot afford it and there is limited social housing
- Limited bus services so reliant on cars, which some may not have
- Struggle to access basic services
- Fewer local, lower skilled jobs
- Elderly may need carers but carers are unlikely to be able to afford to live in Terling and they may struggle to access Terling
How is the demographics of rural area changing in the UK?
- Average age of rural population was 41.5 in 2002 and 45 in 2016
- Average UK average age increased by 1.1 years but by 3.1 years in rural areas
- One person 65+ households increased from 14% in 2011 to 18% in 2018
- 18% of movement into rural Wales was from people returning to areas near where they grew up/when retiring
- Between 2011 and 2025 the rural population increased by 25%
- 22% of rural population was 30-44 in 2001 but was 15% in 2017
- 24% of the rural population was 60+ in 2001 but was 32% in 2017
- 18% of people were 0-14 but by 2017 it was 16%
Why are the population trends in rural areas happening?
- More elderly move in
- Population gets older
- Younger people move out
What are the two forms of counterurbanisation?
Commuters:
- Still work, shop and travel for leisure and entertainment in the urban area
- High incomes
- Most likely in Hinterland
E.g. Terling, Essex
Retirees:
- Don’t need to visit urban areas
- May be returning to rural areas where they grew up or leaving hinterland rural to move to lower cost housing and a slower pace of life
- Most likely in remote rural
E.g. Cornwall and Gwynedd
What are the impacts of counter urbanisation?
- Lower-income local buyers priced out
- Owner occupation increases (74% in rural vs 61% in urban)
- Changes in the socio-economic characteristics of rural areas leads to rural poverty (resource deprivation, opportunity deprivation, inability to obtain affordable housing, higher chances of unemployment in those who lack qualifications, increasing skill requirement for primary)
- Mobility deprivation as elderly are refused driving licenses and declining bus services
- Digital exclusion as most peripheral areas have the worst broadband which creates inequality
Which county has the most holiday homes in UK?
Cornwall has 23,000
Which county has the highest number of holiday homes per head of population?
Gwynedd has 7784
What is the data on second homes in Wales?
- Four times as many houses were sold as second homes compared with the UK average (7.3% of houses vs 1.7%)
- One in every 10 houses in Gwynedd is a second home
- Over a quarter of MPs own 312 residential properties between them
What are the responses to second home ownership in Wales?
- People have to pay council tax on their second home
- Introducing planning permission/licenses to turn residential homes into BnBs
What are the responses to second home ownership in Ceredigion, Montgonmeryshire?
- Between 1970 and 1990, 20 second homes belonging to English owners were attacked
- The group doing this say they are trying to protect the Welsh language
What are the responses to second home ownership in St Ives, Cornwall?
- 1 in 5 homes are second homes
- In 2018, they held a referendum and voted to ban any more second homes
What are the positives of second home ownership in rural areas?
- Create jobs
- Multiplier effect
- Invest in leisure and tourism opportunities
- Large disposable incomes to spend in local businesses
What are the challenges associated with transport provision in rural areas?
- 1/3 rural residents find public transport inadequate
What are the challenges associated with healthcare provision in rural areas?
- Remote rural/peripheral areas need more health and social care workers
- Houses prices have risen 400% since 2000 so key workers are unable to afford to live in these locations
What are the challenges associated with service provision in rural areas?
- Banks and shops have closed in rural towns
- 250 rural bank branches closed in 2023
- Poor broadband connectivity means online banking is challenging
What is Lakes by Yoo?
- Attempt to manage second home demand by increasing supply
- Boosterism
- 178 homes
- £3150 per week to rent so only for very wealthy people
- Celebrity endorsements (e.g. Kate Moss) make it exclusive/attractive
- Demand has increased by association of the Cotswold with the rich and famous in Lakes by Yoo
- People on more modest incomes still holiday there but in local villages
- Some wealthy people will choose to buy a second home anyways
How are village shops affected by regeneration?
- There is an out-migration of young or well qualified people seeking university and employment in urban areas
- Lack of threshold population
- An estimated 300-500 village shops close every year
- In the UK, there are over 350 community run shops (converted after initial closure)
- In Benenden, Kent the local senior school bought the post office when it closed down to keep it open
How are telephone boxes affected by regeneration?
- Mobile phone ownership among 90% of British population
- Phone boxes are obsolete but communities want to retain the distinctive red telephone boxes
- In Forncett St Peter, Norfolk, an old phone box is used for storing a defibrillator
