Rural communities face brunt say Regeneration experts (From Smallholder)

Rural communities face brunt say Regeneration experts

3:50pm Sunday 27th June 2010 in News

Rural residents face being among those worst hit by the huge public sector cuts included in the government's Budget.

People in the countryside are more likely to have a job in the public sector, according to a league table compiled by economic consultants Rose Regeneration.

One in three jobs in predominantly rural local authority areas are within the public sector, it found, compared to one in four jobs in other local authority areas.

"The economy is clearly emerging from recession but there is a price to pay - massive reductions in public expenditure," says Rose Regeneration Director Ivan Annibal.

This is bad news for rural communities, explains Mr Annibal.

"Rural England is more dependent on the public sector than urban England," he warns.

"This means any public sector job losses and spending cuts threaten to have a bigger impact on the most rural parts of the country.

"Careful thinking is needed to avoid unintended consequences when implementing cuts which could impact significantly on rural communities."

Prime Minister David Cameron's home county of Oxfordshire has the highest number of public sector employees (96,000) of all rural counties in England(3).

Other counties with a high public sector job count include Norfolk, Devon, Cambridgeshire, Lincolnshire, Suffolk, Somerset, North Yorkshire, Cornwall and County Durham.

Close behind are Cumbria, Wiltshire, Dorset, Yorkshire (East Riding), Northumberland, Shropshire, Cheshire East, North Somerset, Central Bedfordshire and Herefordshire.