Rural Policy Centre research & analysis

Other projects

A better future for Europe’s rural regions

The Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe (COE) commissioned SRUC’s Rural Policy Centre to give evidence on the development of rural areas, focusing specifically on the diversity of rural regions across Europe and the particular challenges facing remote and sparsely populated areas. The RPC was asked to report evidence on the status quo, plus give international policy examples of how to address a lack of cohesion within and between regions and how to enhance social sustainability, employment, capacity building and infrastructure development.

The COE has 47 member states, including Russia, Turkey, Moldova and Ukraine, as well as all EU members. The work, undertaken by Jane Atterton and Sarah Skerratt, highlighted the diversity of rural regions across Europe, with some being the most prosperous in their countries, while others experience depopulation, high levels of poverty, a reliance on small-scale, often subsistence, agriculture, and are at risk of land abandonment. The report reviewed existing policy approaches to rural development across the Council’s member states (including those advocated by the EU, the OECD and the Eastern Partnership) and then reviewed key challenges and opportunities facing rural regions, with reference to five key themes – territorial cohesion, social sustainability, employment, capacity-building and infrastructure development. The work concluded by highlighting the benefits of taking a place-based approach to policy and suggested that, despite the considerable diversity, there is much that countries can learn from one another through the regular exchange of information and best practice examples.

International experience of community, communal and municipal ownership of land

Commissioned by the Scottish Land Commission, SRUC in cooperation with the James Hutton Institute, the University of the Highlands and Islands and the University of Aberdeen and Ting Xu, is conducting a review of international experience of community, communal and municipal land ownership. 

The project will explore relevant forms of community, communal and municipal land ownership outside Scotland, particularly focusing on the interaction between governance structures, management objectives, the distribution of land rights and cultural perceptions. Lessons for Scotland will be provided from this international experience.

The project has now finished and the report will be published by the Scottish Land Commission later in 2019. For more information, please contact Jane Atterton.

The project included an international webinar, hosted at the James Hutton Institute in Aberdeen on Tuesday 5 March 2019. The aim of the webinar was to discuss emerging findings and lessons from the Research. Participants included international academics, practitioners, stakeholders, and interested members of the public. The webinar began with an overview of the project results and culminated in a discussion about the implications for Scotland. A recording of the webinar can be found here.

Post Brexit Implications for Agriculture and Associated Land Use in the Highlands and Islands

The Highlands and Islands Agricultural Support Group (HIASG) commissioned Andrew Moxey (Pareto Consulting) and Steven Thomson (SRUC) to consider the potential impacts of Brexit on the Highlands and Islands Region.

HIASG (comprising Argyll & Bute Council, Highland Council, Na h-Eileanan Siar, Orkney Council and Shetland Council plus RSPB Scotland) was originally formed in response to on-going debates during periodic reforms to the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), to help frame and present the case for appropriate regional support levels and measures. The need for such policy thinking and advocacy has recently been reinforced by the UK’s decision to leave the European Union, prompting renewed interest in identifying and highlighting particular agricultural and related policy challenges and opportunities facing the region.

The overall aim of this study was to ascertain the possible implications of Brexit for the agricultural sector (including crofting) and related land use in the Highlands & Islands, and to consider the associated impact on the environment, rural communities and economy. More specifically, the study was designed to use available data to establish the present state of the agricultural sector and related land use across the region, project the likely social, environmental and economic impacts of different Brexit scenarios on agriculture and the Highlands & Islands region, and to make recommendations for targeted policy and support measures.

To get a copy of the report email rpc@sruc.ac.uk. 

Rural Mental Health

The resilience, empowerment and wellbeing of individuals and communities across rural Scotland are key themes for our work.

In 2016, SRUC’s Rural Policy Centre and the national mental health charity Support in Mind Scotland joined forces to produce the first rural Scotland-wide survey focused on people’s experiences of living with mental ill health, which was released on 19 April 2017. Hundreds of people responded, telling us the challenges they face with their mental health issues, their ideas for improvements in mental health services and their key messages for policy makers which would lead to improvements in their mental wellbeing.

The findings from our research have already had an impact on the Scottish Government’s new 10-year Mental Health Strategy and have underpinned the formation of the new National Rural Mental Health Forum.

To get a copy of the report email rpc@sruc.ac.uk. 

Rural Enterprise

RPC Manager Jane Atterton has a particular interest in rural enterprises and rural economies, including exploring the characteristics, needs and opportunities, of rural businesses across the UK and the geography of their networking relationships. Jane’s work has also focused on highlighting the ongoing need for improved evidence of the enterprises operating in rural areas.

Jane has served on the advisory group for the Rural Enterprise UK (REUK) project, which is led by the Centre for Rural Economy and the Business School at Newcastle University.

Jane is currently leading a new, collaborative knowledge exchange project involving colleagues at Rural Enterprise UK and HIE who are involved in rural business survey and analysis work. This project is seeking to undertake a series of knowledge exchange activities to raise the profile of the work by these colleagues, and the Rural Business Survey (conducted by colleagues at SRUC), and to enhance their policy impact.

The first briefing provides more descriptive information on the three survey/analysis projects and was written by Roger Turner, an independent rural economies consultant who is working on this project (and is the Knowledge Exchange Facilitator for REUK).

The second briefing summarises the key issues discussed at a ‘Rural Enterprise Evidence in Scotland’ Workshop which was held in Edinburgh on 12 November 2019. Presentations from the workshop are available here.

This work is funded by the Scottish Funding Council through their Universities Innovation Fund for knowledge exchange activities. This work was also supported through the Scottish Government’s 2016-2021 Strategic Research Programme.

We hope that over time this page will provide links to different sources of evidence on rural businesses. Please feel free to contact us to let us know about rural enterprise evidence that you collect and/or are aware of, and we can add a link to it here.

Useful Links:

• Rural Enterprise UK 
• HIE Business Panel Survey