CPRE - Village Vitality

This article was first published in Countryside Voice, the magazine of CPRE (www.cpre.org.uk), in spring 2006.

The article is available to read below and also as a downloadable PDF - click here to download .

Villages are a vital part of the fabric of our countryside, but their communities and services are facing considerable challenges in the modern era. Valerie Elliott, Countryside Editor of The Times, asks what the future holds for England's villages in the twenty-first century and explains what CPRE members can do to help

Village life has probably never been at such a premium or in such demand in modern times. Some 115,000 people a year are turning their back on towns and cities in search of the rural idyll. This exodus is four times the number of northerners now seeking to make their home and living in the higher-salaried suburbs of southern England. It is also almost a third up on the number of 'Good Lifers' who moved from the smoke for greener pastures in the 1980s and 1990s.

The escape from urban living has largely been led by young families in search of a better quality of life. It is not difficult to understand why - children in rural schools generally achieve higher grades than their counterparts in the inner cities. Similarly the countryside offers greater opportunities for outdoor pursuits and recreation and people here enjoy better health prospects according to the Countryside Agency's State of the Countryside report. There is also a growth in the newly retired who immerse themselves in village life, joining the parish council or helping to win lottery cash for a village hall or leisure centre.

This influx is putting some villages under fierce pressure. But it also has the potential to save many which might otherwise die, taking with them a way of living which has been a backbone of English life for centuries. The arrival of newcomers should be a matter for celebration and welcome, for this new blood will prevent villages becoming mothballed and moribund.

A glut of young mums may enliven village life with a crèche or playgroup while the early retired bring entrepreneurial skills and can sometimes create part-time jobs as well as acting as drivers and carers for neighbours who may be elderly or infirm.

Commuters, too, should not be derided for they also play their part in cementing village life. They use local traders for home and vehicle repairs. Their children fill places in a village school and they provide jobs for cleaners, gardeners and nannies. Often the more populated a village and the greater the number of new arrivals, the greater the chances of saving the village school, shop, pub and garage, or gaining extra bus routes and attracting peripatetic GPs, nurses even chemists, hairdressers and beauticians.

Despite Britain's multi-cultural society there are still few Asian or Afro-Caribbean families choosing to leave the city for village life. Tourist and heritage chiefs are in the front line to do more to attract visits from these communities. Once the habit is instilled, however, policymakers predict that many people from ethnic minorities will also seek to escape urban life for the peace and tranquillity of rural life. A greater mix in villages will also help to garner a greater understanding of different cultures and traditions in the country.

It is crucial that all of these new residents add to village life, support its development and pass their involvement on to subsequent generations. Children who have grown up in the village should be able to make their home, too, among their roots. Yet the single most urgent problem for villages in rural areas is the lack of opportunities for these young people. For even if they can get a job the chances are it will be too poorly paid to buy or even rent a home or flat.

This lack of affordable housing is at the top of the Whitehall rural agenda. Ministers are well aware of the problems but are uncertain of the solutions. To ban second homes or to limit sales of houses to local people only may bring down property prices. Elinor Goodman, former political editor of Channel 4 news and keen countrywoman, has been tasked to find a way forward. Her Commission for Rural Communities is to report this spring, but it is thought she will recommend small-scale pockets of high-quality new housing, which offers a mix of rented or part-rent and buy flats and houses.

Tackling social exclusion is also a priority for the new Commission. One of the poorest groups identified by researchers are elderly women, widows and spinsters, who live alone in remote rural areas. Teenagers are also singled out for help. A lack of late-evening buses prevents them from joining in sports or other activities in nearby towns. Some even have difficulty getting to further education colleges because of poor transport connections.

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