5. Opportunities and threats
q Opportunities
South Downs National Park – duty to promote social and
economic development (11% of rural West Sussex pop.)
Thriving small rural towns with strong community partnerships
Highly entrepreneurial land based sector on the Chichester
plain
Rapid job creation within home-based and micro-business
sector
q Threats
“No change” lobby amongst those living in rural areas but
personally disconnected from the local economy
Limited broadband access
Demographic change
19 March 2012
Slide no. 5
6. The Rural Partnership
q Pre-dates the Gatwick Diamond and Coastal Partnerships
q Encompasses social, economic and environmental interests
q Leadership and secretariat provided by the charity Action in
rural Sussex with financial support from WSCC and DEFRA
q Has acted as a broad ‘stakeholder’ group for a number of
initiatives to promote rural access to services and to tackle
rural disadvantage
q Has ‘spun off’:
ERDP Leader Local Action Groups
Rural Skills and Enterprise Group
q Currently reviewing structure and raising level of ‘decision
maker’ engagement
19 March 2012
Slide no. 6
7. Growing the rural economy (1)
q Jobs and the knowledge economy are growing in rural
West Sussex (2003-8)
Although the no.of jobs in the rural wards
increased by nearly 11% or 6,500….
….the no.of jobs in urban areas declined by a 6,500
or 2.4% of urban jobs.
Knowledge economy jobs grew in the rural wards
by 20%, or 3,300 jobs.
q Manufacturing is the biggest rural sector in terms of
jobs - 12.5%
19 March 2012
Slide no. 7
8. Growing the rural economy (2)
q Land based employment is the second smallest sector
This sector represents just 1.2 % of businesses in the
rural area.
However, there are signs of growth in new areas such as
viticulture.
q Large numbers of fast growing rural home based businesses
Based on 2008 GEM research (30k base):
56% of all UK businesses home based
61% of start ups home based
54% of entrepreneurs plan home base
3 times more HBB in rural areas (CRC!)
19 March 2012
Slide no. 8
9. Broadband
q Market failure
Poor rural broadband access is a case of fundamental market failure
– regulation and intervention must be triggered in relation to the
urban market offer ie capacity and price
q Intervention and regulation
A strategic framework to make use of all private and public assets to
reach 90% of rural people needs to be put in place; administrative
and commercially restrictive obstacles must be cleared out of the
way.
q The community role
We can help communities to reach the last 10%, but only if there is a
coherent financial and technical framework within which their
contribution makes sense and can be sustained.
q Demand stimulation / registration
Made more difficult by current very poor service
19 March 2012
Slide no. 9
10. Key messages
q Remove the barriers and small business will grow by
itself
q Young people are the future but access to skills
training is poor
q Cost of housing is out of step with incomes in the
rural economy
q Ditch the myths about the rural economy and build on
success
19 March 2012
Slide no. 10
