SAC report highlights challenges facing rural areas

A new report from SAC’s Rural Policy Centre says rural Scotland will ‘share the pain’ of public sector funding cuts with the rest of the country – but some rural areas are much more vulnerable than others.

The report has ranked each of Scotland’s local authority areas according to its vulnerability to further economic downturn following reduced public spending.

According to the ‘vulnerability index’, produced and analysed in conjunction with Rose Regeneration and the Rural Services Network, the Western Isles, Argyll and Bute, Dumfries and Galloway, Moray and the Orkney Islands are the rural areas that are likely to be hardest hit. Shetland and Aberdeenshire are Scotland’s least vulnerable rural areas.

RPC researcher Dr Jane Atterton, author of the report, said: “The index highlights that rural areas face a range of challenges relating to low pay, high proportions of public sector jobs and an imbalanced age structure – there are high numbers of older residents and lower proportions of people of working age.”

The report adds challenges will also be faced by low income rural households, with cuts to their benefits at a time when the cost of basic commodities, such as food and fuel - for both transport and heating - has been rising.

Dr Atterton said the private sector in rural areas may struggle to take up the slack in terms of the jobs lost in the public sector so it was important adequate support was in place for existing businesses and for those who may wish to set up new businesses.

“Good infrastructure is also important, not least in terms of high quality, next generation broadband provision.”

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