Rural Economy

Lord Cameron of Dillington Excerpts

Thursday 11th June 2026 Lords Chamber

[Lord Cameron of Dillington (CB)]

My Lords, it is a great honour to follow the noble Baroness, Lady Royall. I am a retired member of a farming family from Somerset producing food and milk with lettings to domestic and commercial tenants. The first thing to say about the rural economy is that it is not agriculture that makes it tick. Agriculture and forestry actually represent less than 4% of rural employment and rural GVA. Of course, if you add in the support industries and the food chain, it is considerably more, but then many of those businesses are urban-based. So, although the food industry as a whole is vital to the nation’s economy and, indeed, its survival, farming, as such, plays a lesser part in the rural economy than many people think. However, it should be said that farmers also create our wonderful countryside, which helps attract rural tourism, which adds another 4% to rural GVA and also over 12% of all rural employment.

However, the rural economy is now incredibly diverse. There are more manufacturing businesses in rural England than in urban, not per head but per se. For example, in our converted farm buildings in Somerset, we have web designers, microchip manufacturers, school management services, vets, accountants, insurance brokers, hairdressers and even two padel courts. I suspect that we now have more people working on the farm than before the repeal of the Corn Laws in 1846. The rural economy is transformed and, certainly in the western half of England, many of our small farming families depend upon non-agricultural wages, which, when added to the family budget, help keep the farm solvent. In other words, the more diversified the rural economy, the better it is for agriculture.

The biggest problem holding back the rural economy now is the unavailability of labour, and there are two main features of this: housing and transport. The unaffordability and unavailability of rural housing means that the next generation of working families has largely moved to our cities and towns. I am hoping that the Social Housing Bill will help create more affordable houses in our villages and market towns, but that is a very big subject that I do not have time to go into now.

On transport, our rural young have a problem. How do you get to your first job 10 miles away at 7.30 am without a set of wheels, and how do you get a set of wheels without the wages from your first job? It is a Catch-22. The simple answer is that you lend the youngster a moped. There used to be hundreds of Wheels to Work schemes around England that did just that. The youngster was lent a moped free of charge and, after six months in work, had to give it back and get their own set of wheels. The scheme was funded by local authorities and the DWP. Then, as we all know, local authorities ran out of money and the urban-based DWP simply did not get that these schemes cost less per head than the social security benefits otherwise payable to these youngsters. Sadly, nearly all these Wheels to Work schemes have died.

Transport problems do not affect only the young. I have had families explain to me that with the cost of rural childcare and the low local wages available, it does not make economic sense for them to buy a second car so that the second adult can go to work. As I say, unavailability of labour remains a serious impediment to rural growth.

There are other problems for the growth of the rural economy. Most serious is the difficulty of accessing training, but there is also the poor connectivity of phones and broadband, higher energy costs and endless delays in planning. I say to our planners that our villages were made for work, rest and play. Remember the butcher, the baker and the candlestick maker. Villages have never been and should never be just dormitories.

We are an enterprising lot in rural Britain. There are more rural businesses per head than in urban Britain. There is a far higher rate of self-employment. We tend to prefer getting up and trying rather than getting up and taking the dole. We will always survive, but we need support and help to fulfil our true potential.