Rural Economy

My Lords, we are all very grateful to the noble Baroness, Lady Miller, for initiating this debate. I am particularly grateful because when I saw the topic, I thought that I had better find out something about the rural economy. I do not live in a rural area. I am not even what I might call a townie with a weekend rural property—a twerp, for short. But I have views on agriculture and the rural economy, which I would like to share. I welcome CAP reform. I was against CAP for a long time. The more that we reform CAP and the less we spend on subsidising farming across Europe, the better not only Europe would be but also the world. CAP and export subsidies have done a great of damage to the third world. The sooner we can get shot of this, the better. I congratulate the Government on trying their best during the UK presidency to link budgetary reform to CAP—even offering the UK rebate for it. Sadly, western interests are very powerful, so we still have some way to go. I hope that eventually we will have an agricultural policy in Europe which is of benefit to Europeans and the world at large. On looking at the state of the rural economy, I turned to the Defra report on social and economic change published about two years ago, which sort of matched what I thought rural areas were like. Some people who live in rural areas make a conscious lifestyle choice to live far away from it all. Having made a lifestyle choice, they complain that they are far away from it all—that they do not get regular transport or other things. That is precisely why they moved to the rural area. They moved there because there is no traffic, noise or pollution. All of us want to live in a remote area where everything that we need is supplied only for us and everyone else can stay away. However, on looking at the data, rural areas are not being depopulated: they are being repopulated. There is a higher growth in the rural population than in the urban population. As my noble friend Lord Harrison said, we should make a distinction between the two parts of the rural population. Obviously, where there is good access to towns there is prosperity and few problems. It is in the remoter parts where we have to concentrate our attention and see how we can improve the lives of people. There again, there is a tendency to exaggerate problems, just as when we discuss the National Health Service. We have to say that nurses’ morale has never been lower than now. Everyone says that every time it is discussed. Similarly, people always say that rural poverty is terrible, and so on. Although the numbers may be wrong, they do not bear out any notion of a great deal of rural poverty. The index of multiple deprivation cited in the report states that 94 per cent of people who suffer from multiple deprivation live in urban areas, 29 per cent of the population live in rural areas, and only 6 per cent of multiple-deprived people live in rural areas. Numbers have been bandied about on earnings. Again, it turns out that in rural areas with access to cities, income is higher than in urban areas. It is in only remote areas where income is lower. But it is not that much lower. The difference is about £3,000: earnings are approximately £23,000 in remote areas, £26,000 in urban areas, and £29,000 in rural areas with access. It seems to me that we are not talking about great deprivation. What is interesting, however, is that people are choosing to move to rural areas, especially retired people and people who want to raise their children in more salubrious surroundings. Given that it is a problem arising from life choice, one ought to respond to it accordingly. The Government ought to provide services that help people enjoy their lifestyle choices, but it is not, in my view—and maybe I am being very complacent—a panic situation. It is not a story of urban deprivation or crisis. People have mentioned that there are all sorts of shortages in rural areas: affordable housing; transport; lack of broadband; lack of post offices, and so on. Therefore, I propose that Defra—and I do not expect my noble friend to answer this—should research a proper price index for rural living. Well-being is a different matter, because obviously bluebell woods and so on add a fantastic amount to well-being. I do not begrudge those things. If people want to live there they can live there; it is their business. I would not live there. Given that there are frequent complaints about affordable housing and so on, it would be interesting to see how true this is. If there were a different price index for rural areas, as against urban areas, and remote rural areas as against accessible rural areas, perhaps we could find out if there really is a problem here. I suspect that the problems of real deprivation—such as unemployment—are to be found more in urban areas than in rural areas. Living in rural areas is a lifestyle choice and I congratulate those people who have made that choice. I do not think this is a dire problem.