‘You’re letting our countryside down’

May 8 2008 by William Green, The Journal

MINISTERS are consistently failing rural communities in the North East, experts from the region claimed yesterday.

Rural economists are now calling for a radical shake-up of Government departments to address problems of unemployment, low wages and poor transport infrastructure.

A Newcastle University expert and the Government-created Commission for Rural Communities (CRC) told MPs yesterday that the Whitehall department supposed to look after rural areas is not doing its job.

Professor Neil Ward, from Newcastle University’s Centre for Rural Economy, said the failure of Government rural policy since 2001 was partly down to the “eclipse” of rural affairs in the Department for Food, Environment and Rural Affairs (Defra) as it focused on climate change and animal disease.

He warned an overly agricultural and urban-centred approach to development and “naive and simplistic” assumptions have added to the failures.

“The result is that the major drivers and problems of rural economies are not properly targeted by business support, training provision and infrastructural investment,” said Prof Ward.

He acknowledged the importance of the environment, but did not see much evidence that giving responsibility for it to Defra alongside duties over farming and food worked well.

“Environment could have been put with energy and transport,” said Prof Ward. “Rural affairs understandably doesn’t fare well with that kind of struggle for what the priorities are.”

He warned resources focused on rural affairs had been cut as he gave evidence to the Commons Environment, Food and Rural Affairs committee (EFRA), which is holding an inquiry into the prospects for the rural economy.

Prof Ward is now calling on ministers to make Defra an effective champion of rural areas and to “rural proof” policies, warning some redirection of resources may be required if it really is a priority.

The CRC stressed the need for good transport links – a key concern in Northumberland where the A1 is not fully dualled through the county to Scotland.

It highlighted how rural unemployment in the North East tops 25% compared to less than 20% in the East Midlands, which has the highest rural employment level.

Hourly pay in parts of Northumberland and County Durham are as low as £6 compared to the English average of £13.61 in 2007.

Weekly pay in Alnwick and Berwick was less than the £468 recorded in Copeland, West Cumbria, between 1998 and 2005.

Residents in urban areas earn up to £130 more a week, according to the CRC.

Last night, regional Countryside Alliance director Richard Dodd said Defra had always been an “unwieldy” department since replacing the Ministry for Agriculture, Food and Farming in 2001.

But Defra last night refuted claims that the department was not doing enough for rural communities, saying it took that work very seriously. It said 494,000 more people were now in employment in rural areas than in 1997.

The major problems of rural economies are not properly targeted by infrastructural investment.