Agenda item

The Chairman invited Philip Clifford, Senior Adviser, to introduce the report.

Philip outlined research showing how rural and coastal communities have suffered from poverty and deprivation over a number of years and explained that Government interventions to address it had been patchy. The current pandemic had served to highlight some of these issues but there was now an opportunity to consider how best to strengthen rural and coastal resilience within the context of national recovery and the UK’s EU exit.

Philip therefore asked the Board to consider commissioning external research to help develop an evidence-based case for strengthening rural and coastal resilience.

Following the introduction, members raised the following points:

·       Members felt that there was already a lot of information on rural and coastal deprivation in the public domain (for example in LEPs and the former Regional Development Agencies) and urged officers not to ‘reinvent the wheel’. This existing information should be collated and updated before any new primary research was commissioned.

·       Concern was expressed about the closure of welfare assistance schemes in rural areas and, also, that LEPs often failed to address rural economic interests. There was a request for the LGA to engage with SPARSE and others to see what was already being done to address these sorts of issues.

·       Members felt that there was a need to differentiate between rural and coastal communities as they often faced different and distinct challenges.

·       Any solutions should be outcome-focussed but the problems of rural and coastal areas were often more deep-seated than simply a lack of funding or employment opportunities.

Decision

·       Members of the People & Places Board agreed that officers should bring a summary of existing research and information on rural and coastal issues to the next Lead Member meeting to inform a decision on commissioning further work.