North East

One North East and a range of partners commissioned this investigation into the issues facing rural areas, to meet the following objectives:

• develop a robust and cohesive evidence base for the region’s rural areas that feeds the development and delivery of key strategies within One NorthEast
• present a detailed analysis of the data to encourage a good understanding of the region’s rural areas, and specifically the differences in rural performance and context which will justify policymakers taking account of the regional rural agenda in future
• develop key recommendations for effective rural mainstreaming in One NorthEast, including a policy framework to enable non-rural specialists in One NorthEast to take ownership of the rural agenda and help the Agency to report against Defra’s Departmental Strategic Objective of Strong Rural Communities

There are three papers:

• Working Paper 1a, which is an overview of the evidence base relating to rural areas, drawing mainly on quantitative sources
• Working Paper 1b, which provides a fuller examination of the data
• Working paper 2, which provides further interpretation and reflection on the evidence base, develops a typology of rural areas, and discusses rural futures.