Rural potential goes 'untapped'

Housing and transport are often problems in the countryside

Businesses in rural parts of England do less well than those in urban areas and are failing to reach their full potential, a report has said.

The chairman of the Commission for Rural Communities, which wrote the report, said rural areas had up to £347bn a year of untapped potential.

But Stuart Burgess said some villages could become commuter ghettos, empty of local wealth if action was not taken.

The study was launched after the floods and foot-and-mouth crises last summer.

Mr Burgess, who is the Rural Advocate, told BBC Radio 5 Live: "The rural economy actually contributes over £300bn into the general economy already."

He said he did not think the government had been ignoring rural areas, and that he had actually seen a steady growth in rural economies over the past 10 years.

The village used to be an economic hub Stuart Burgess Commission for Rural Communities

But he said much more could be made of rural economies and that "regrettably, too often rural issues are given little recognition in keynote speeches".

And he says too often business councils based in rural areas have problems with affordable housing and transport.

Mr Burgess is calling on the government to take four key steps to safeguard rural economies.

He said there needed to be an economic minister to oversee support of rural economies; a "rural summit" to pursue local business; a "rural finance forum" to tap into private and public money; and a "rural innovation initiative" to encourage entrepreneurs and ensure access to resources such as broadband.

Mr Burgess said the aim for the future should be to reinstate rural villages to their past function which was in "a very real sense that the village used to be an economic hub."

"I don't think the countryside can be left alone," he said.