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Building on Potential in our Rural Areas

Northwest Regional Development Agency Rural Policy Statement This policy expresses the position of the Northwest Regional Development Agency (NWDA) on the issues that are central in realising the economic potential of the rural Northwest. It states the ways in which NWDA wishes to see strong growth in the rural economy and identifies where the NWDA expects other partners to lead and invest.

The policy sets out the strategic rationale for the NWDA’s intervention and its priorities for delivering strategic activity in rural areas through a range of initiatives and programmes.

We should not view ‘the rural economy’ as a single homogenous unit. Rather economies related to place and a particular set of social, economic and environmental characteristics which combine to achieve economic growth along with huge quality of life benefits for the whole region.

The need to create and maintain the conditions for sustainable growth: The rural Northwest is an area of stable business formation however low productivity and growth remain an issue in remote rural areas. Regular and full-time employment; a wide diversity of opportunities and everyday access to public and business services, all help to underpin economic and social sustainability. Yet in rural areas, all of these rapidly disappear in harder to reach areas. Key service centres are at the heart of many community issues on access to services. They have evolved to function as networks, collectively addressing local retail, employment and housing needs.

Policy Traditionally, intervention in rural areas has focused on:

Background Although the issues manifest themselves differently, the same three major drivers of our regional economy influence the economic potential of our rural areas.

The need to improve productivity and grow the market: Economic activity in rural areas accounts for around £22bn or 20.5% of the region’s Gross Value Added (GVA).

This is higher than expected given the share of rural employment (20.3%) and population (19.5%). However, whilst many rural local authority districts are performing well in terms of GVA, remote rural districts such as Allerdale, Eden, Ribble Valley and South Lakeland are lagging behind. This highlights the widening gap between rural areas close to larger towns and cities and the remote, more self-contained rural areas.

The rural Northwest has a higher share of micro-enterprises than the regional average particularly in remoter rural areas. It is therefore important to identify and assist those enterprises with real potential for sustainable growth and employment creation and address key market failures such as the quantity and quality of workspace.

The need to grow the size and capability of the workforce: Whilst worklessness is not a prime issue for rural areas, there is a crucial need to increase the proportion of higher added-value knowledge-based jobs and full-time employment opportunities, particularly in remote rural areas.

As shown in the chart below, the employment structure of the rural Northwest is broadly similar to the regional average.

Northwest Urban/Rural Sector Employment Profiles (2008)

%

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

Extraction Manufacturing Construction

Leadership is a vital component in the drive for prosperity and improving the balance and type of businesses representing the rural agenda is fundamental in order to deliver rational intervention in rural areas. Equally we must recognise the strengths of the third sector in bringing creative and flexible solutions to rural areas.

With these points in mind, NWDA’s rural policy is focused on: Ensuring Ongoing Sustainable Growth in the Rural Economy Our intervention must centre on activity that improves profitability; creates new enterprise and allows rural businesses to network, collaborate and connect with the market place. We must find ways of realising the true potential of new start and micro enterprise to transform rural economies. It will require Place Renaissance for economic growth – focused on priority key service centres in rural areas. Specific activity may include:

• Place-centred improvements to public realm and to the built environment in priority key service centres that will stimulate and support further private sector investment;

Finance/Business Urban

Rural

Data source: Experian

Whilst the rural Northwest has a highly skilled resident population, engagement in work-based training, particularly in the most isolated and remote rural areas, is decreasing. It is imperative that rural communities recognise the significance of having an appropriately skilled workforce in achieving growth.

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The multi-functional role of these centres must be maximised as must their ability to underpin economic potential through Place Renaissance. The continual improvement of ‘rural connectivity’ to support access to markets, business and services is imperative.

support companies to harness information and communication technologies;

Transport & Comms

Agriculture

Whilst these points are still important, the future economic success of rural areas will depend increasingly on an ability to embed and grow businesses in rural areas, particularly knowledge intensive businesses. This will require modern and flexible workspace and the delivery of employment land in and around priority key service centres where the majority of GVA growth in rural areas will continue to be realised.

• Business Support Products that fit “Solutions for Business” portfolio to help foster new enterprises and

Distribution/Hotels

Other Services

• Halting and where possible, reversing decline; • Tackling the barriers to productivity; • Bringing new opportunities to rural areas; and • Supporting activities that strengthen the rural economy.

• The creation of employment sites and modern and flexible workspaces to directly support business growth; • The development of new markets supported by greater innovation in rural areas; • Building Rural Leadership; Business Competitiveness; Collaboration and Networking Initiatives; • Working through Food Northwest to embed viability at the heart of the farming and food industry by reconnecting with; responding to the market; and promoting our great regional food offer.

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Delivering our Priorities in Rural Areas

Creating a Skilled Workforce within Sustainable Rural Communities We must meet the skills needs of those sectors with significant growth potential and link those opportunities to the wider rural economy. We must invest in the development of intermediate and higher level skills in the current workforce to achieve longer term sustainable growth and raise productivity. Initiatives that increase the participation of all potential workers in training and those which aim to provide the best start for young people and improved succession planning are particularly important. Realistically, succession planning to sustain the economic fabric of rural communities must look further than the land-based sector and the immediate farming family if it is to be successful. Specific activity may include:

• Workforce development to support identifiable new market growth; • Greater access to learning in support of improved workforce diversity and increased capacity within the Voluntary & Community Sector to support access, particularly in remote rural areas;

• Improved skills access and development within farming and food sectors; • Improved access to and diversity of vocational training in remote rural areas; • Improved career information within the career services to promote informed career choices.

The Sustainable diversification of the Economic Base of Rural Areas Broadening the economic base of rural areas where there has been consistent under-performance and where there is disadvantage remains a key underpinning objective. We must work with partners to develop initiatives that tackle the root causes of low productivity and performance in the rural economy and help modernise and diversify key employment sectors. Specific activity may include:

• Identification and support of sectors or distinct areas with higher growth potential; • The development of key service centres as functional networks which tackle exclusion issues by including outreach arrangements;

• Better utilisation of public buildings for use in local economic development; • Diversification associated with regional and local food; • Innovation, on-farm diversification or collaborative activity in farm businesses; • Greater socio-economic functionality of multi-use centres; • Enhancing the capacity of rural communities to develop social-enterprise.

The rural economy is recognised in the RES as a key growth asset and NWDA will implement plans to ensure ongoing growth in the rural economy as part of the Regional Rural Delivery Framework.

Considerable change and support is needed to secure sustainable growth in the future and the Regional Rural Delivery Framework is at the heart of achieving growth in rural areas. This in turn, requires partners to work together to achieve its objectives. Other strategies will have a significant bearing on the direction of rural policy and a number of teams across NWDA must recognise and address the impact of their activities on the rural economy. For example, Sustainable Farming and Food Strategy (SFFS) priorities for the region are set out in the SFFS Action Plan and this policy reflects those priorities.

This policy cannot effectively cover other major agendas that are key to rural areas and that are covered by separate policies – Enterprise; Climate Change; and Tourism being three examples. Several other strategies are vital to the rural agenda and support rural economic growth, demonstrating the need to look at the broader “rural” impact of NWDA activity. Collectively they demonstrate the need to ensure a consistently robust approach to mainstreaming rural activity across regional and sub-regional plans. This will require the NWDA and its strategic partners to work with the Northwest Rural Affairs Forum on a consistent, quantifiable approach to “rural proofing” activity going forward.

Implementation NWDA recognises it has a vital role in commissioning intervention in rural areas and providing strategic leadership to drive sustainable growth and improved access to economically important services.

NWDA will seek to exploit the better integration of planning and economic policy to benefit rural areas.

Wherever possible, we will mainstream solutions for the rural economy through our core programmes of activity. Where appropriate, we will directly commission strategic activity to deliver our priorities but we will also work with partners to deliver activity sub-regionally.

NWDA sees the role of its sub-regional partners as defining both sub-regional priorities and delivering solutions to address issues at an appropriate level reflecting Regional policy. We do not wish to see rural treated as a separate case where there should be unequivocal benefits being delivered to rural areas via ‘mainstream’ sub-regional programmes.

Success will require dialogue and collaboration to tie as much of this activity to agreed sub-regional priorities as is possible. NWDA will work to ensure that programmes of activity that sit outside of that approach, such as the Rural Development Programme for England (RDPE), complement rather than duplicate sub-regional activity.

NWDA is confident that the objectives within this policy reflect the Government’s Rural Strategy; recent important reports on the future of rural economies; and Defra’s Strategic Objective of Strong Rural Communities. The policy has strong parallels with priorities in the Regional Rural Delivery Framework and measures that will be delivered under RDPE.

“Partners are agreed that we must all act to address the challenges faced by our rural areas. NWDA believe that the successful delivery of this policy through strong partnership working will be a significant step towards that goal.”

NWDA October 2008

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The Rural Northwest Key Facts

• 20.5% of the region’s economic output with 24.3% of rural GVA generated by the manufacturing sector.

• 80.1% of the working age population economically active.

• 27% of the region’s business stock, 77% of these micro-enterprises.

• Business density 13% higher than regional average at 46 per 1,000 resident population.

• £16,494 of GVA generated per capita, higher than regional average.

• Resident earnings are 7.5% higher that workplace earnings.

• 32.7% of working age population with NVQ level 4 qualifications or above.

• 1.3 million total population accounting for 19.5% of the regional total.

• 24.7% in distribution/hotels; 23.9% of employment in the other services sector; 16.9% in financial and business services and 13.6% in manufacturing.

Defra’s ‘Rural Definition’ created in 2004, classifies almost one-third of local authority districts in the Northwest as ‘rural’. The map shows finer-grained assessment of our rural areas using Super Output Areas, geographic areas with an average population of 1500, and reveals the true breadth of our rural region.

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1 Macclesfield 2 Crewe & Nantwich 3 Chester 4 Ellesmere Port & Neston 5 Congleton 6 Vale Royal 7 Copeland 8 Carlisle 9 South Lakeland 10 Allerdale 11 Eden 12 Barrow-inFurness 13 West Lancashire 14 Lancaster 15 Chorley 16 South Ribble 17 Rossendale 18 Fylde 19 Preston 20 Wyre 21 Pendle 22 Ribble Valley

23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43

Hyndburn Burnley Bolton Bury Knowsley Liverpool Manchester Oldham Rochdale Salford Sefton Stockport St. Helens Tameside Trafford Wigan Wirral Blackburn-with-Darwen Blackpool Halton Warrington

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7

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12 14

22 20

21

41

19 18

24

23 16 17

40 15 13

31 26

25

30

38 32

33 27

36

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29 37

28

34

43

39 42

Local Authority Districts

Sparse Town & Fringe

Less Sparse Town & Fringe

Sparse Village

Less Sparse Village

Sparse Urban

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1 6

5

3

2

Less Sparse Urban

Ordnance Survey Crown Copyright. All Rights Reserved GD 021102 Source: ONS Geography Rural Statistics provided by NWDA Rural Team Figures based on 2004 Rural Definition.

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The Northwest Regional Development Agency PO Box 37 Renaissance House Centre Park Warrington Cheshire WA1 1XB Tel: +44 (0)1925 400 100 Fax: +44 (0)1925 400 400 www.nwda.co.uk

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