‘Manchesterism must reach beyond the city regions’

Economic growth was the central mission of Labour’s 2024 manifesto. It was the change Labour was elected to deliver, and it must be felt in every part of the country: not only in our cities and large towns, but across our villages, market towns, coastlines and countryside too.

Sadly, this will not happen if rural Britain continues to be treated as an afterthought in the national economic story.

For too long, rural communities have been viewed through a narrow and outdated lens: as places of scenery rather than productivity; agriculture rather than enterprise; prosperity rather than pressure; tradition rather than innovation. The Labour Rural Research Group’s (LRRG) latest report, The Future of the Rural Economy, tells a very different story.

Indeed, rural Britain is not peripheral to national renewal. It is where much of the country’s food is produced; where clean energy infrastructure will be hosted; where nature recovery must be delivered; where new homes and infrastructure will often be built; and where thousands of small businesses, manufacturers, tourism firms, food producers, land managers and community enterprises are already working to generate growth.

READ MORE: ‘Resilient communities and lower bills. Under Burnham Labour will achieve both’

The problem is not, therefore, a lack of potential. The problem is that this potential is constrained.

Around 10 million people live in rural areas across the UK, representing roughly 17% of the population. Rural England generated £259 billion in Gross Value Added in 2023, yet its share of national output has fallen from around 19% in 2001 to approximately 12% today. Productivity in majority rural local authorities is around 92% of the England average, meaning the average rural worker generates around 8% less output than the national average. Closing that gap could generate an estimated £22.5 billion in additional economic output.

These figures matter because they expose a mismatch between the role rural Britain could play in the country’s future, and the level of priority it has received from successive governments.

The constraints facing rural Britain are familiar to anyone who lives or works in a rural community. Businesses may want to expand but struggle with weak transport links, poor digital connectivity, limited access to finance or planning delays. Farms may want to diversify but face uncertainty around land use, grid connections or future support schemes. Young people may want to stay local, but find there are too few affordable homes, too few transport options and too few routes into training and/or skilled work. The LRRG’s report looks at each of these issues in detail.

This is not, however, a collection of separate or isolated problems. Rather, it reflects a system failure that is complex to address. Housing affects whether employers can recruit. Transport affects whether people can get to work or college. Digital connectivity affects whether businesses can trade, grow and adopt new technologies. Grid capacity affects whether farms and rural firms can diversify into clean energy. Public services affect whether people can remain economically active. Land use affects food security, nature recovery, housing and energy security at the same time.

This is why rural policy cannot be treated as a small departmental brief – or as a set of ‘rural proofing exercises’ after the key decisions have already been made – any longer. Rural Britain has to be built into the country’s growth strategy from the start.

And this is why place-based politics can and should resonate far beyond Greater Manchester. The best of what has been described as ‘Manchesterism’ is not simply about one city region – it’s about trusting places, devolving power, joining up services and building economic strategies around the real lives of communities, rather than the convenience of Whitehall departments.

This instinct is right.

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But the true politics of place must include rural Britain too. The Makerfield test — the idea that communities which have been ignored or poorly served by Westminster should now be placed towards the top of the list — resonates just as strongly in rural and semi-rural Britain as small deindustrialised towns. Many rural and semi-rural communities also feel that decisions are made far away, by people who do not understand their economies, their geography or the daily trade-offs they face.

This is both a risk and an opportunity for the Labour Government, provided it’s prepared to move beyond accepting ‘rural add-ons’ to urban policy and to spend time generating new, rural-centric thinking. For example, it means developing growth plans that recognise rural communities need different tools – better transport links to jobs and training; more affordable homes for local workers and families; a workforce strategy that includes skills, childcare and older-worker participation; faster broadband and mobile coverage for the hardest-to-reach areas; grid upgrades where rural energy projects are being held back; and planning systems with focused capacity to support rural enterprise, diversification and investment. True Manchesterism will mean giving rural and semi-rural businesses the same chance to scale as firms in towns and cities by creating the conditions that allow rural potential to be fully unlocked.

That is why our report on The Future of the Rural Economy, among 27 separate recommendations, calls for a whole-of-government rural economic strategy; stronger rural proofing across economic policy; and a Rural Economy Delivery Board linked to devolved growth plans, so rural priorities are embedded in regional growth strategies and matched by clear ministerial accountability.

For too long, rural communities have been viewed through outdated assumptions: as uniformly prosperous, primarily agricultural, politically peripheral or resistant to change. The evidence tells a different story. Rural Britain is economically significant, socially diverse and central to the future of the country. Labour’s reset must recognise this reality. If we are serious about growth being felt everywhere, rural Britain cannot be an afterthought. It must be part of the strategy from the start.

What are the benefits of this? Well, the prize is significant. It means more resilient communities, stronger food production, better energy security, more affordable homes, thriving local businesses and young people able to build a future close to where they grew up. Put simply, a more balanced economy.

The LRRG believes, and this report shows, that rural Britain is ready to contribute more to national growth. The question is whether national policy is ready to let it.

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