Rural poverty 'overlooked and misunderstood' by policymakers, report finds

Rural communities have been overlooked by successive Governments, the report says, with assumptions that they are areas assumed to be 'prosperous, politically peripheral, or resistant to change'

Chris Brayford

19 March 2026 • 8 min read

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Labour Rural Research Group Chair Jenny Riddell-Carpenter said: "For too many policymakers, and for too many departments in Whitehall, rurality is a persistent blind spot - rendering rural poverty invisible. Yet for millions of people across our countryside and coastal communities, hardship is not the exception, it is a daily reality."

Policymakers must develop a comprehensive strategy to accelerate social and economic mobility in the countryside after a new report revealed poverty in farming communities has been disregarded and misunderstood...

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