Rural Economy

Baroness McIntosh of Pickering Excerpts

Thursday 11th June 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness McIntosh of Pickering (Con)]

My Lords, I welcome my noble friends Lord Goschen and Lord Roborough back to their positions, and I congratulate my noble friend Lord Fuller on securing this debate, which I welcome very warmly.

What is a rural area? We know that rural areas in the UK generate over £250 billion annually for the national economy, yet the cost of living is a very real issue in rural areas. Wages are often lower, yet the costs of housing, transport and heating are higher, and it is more expensive to deliver public services in rural areas. The Government loosely define a rural area: its definition is literally everywhere other than an urban area. An urban area is a settlement with a population of 10,000 or more, based on the 2021 census. A rural area thereby includes rural towns, villages, hamlets, isolated dwellings and the open countryside. The rural population in 2021 was 9.5 million, representing 16.9% of England’s population. North Yorkshire, a part of which I was proud to represent in the other place, is a very sparsely populated and largely rural area, with 623,370 residents covering over 8,000 square kilometres. It is sparsely populated and, in parts, quite isolated.

What is a rural economy? It covers all economic activities, as we have heard, and industry employment in non-urban areas. While primarily agricultural in nature, a rural economy is diverse, covering manufacturing, engineering, tourism, professional services and the digital economy.

What are the challenges facing the rural economy? I will focus on farming as the major contributor and the one activity of which I have the closest knowledge. It is a source of great concern to me that, while the level of support is falling and the challenges and pressures on productive farming are growing, there is now a funding gap as farm incomes are going down. British farm payments are being slashed; at the same time, environmental schemes, including the SFI, as we have heard, are very slow to be introduced. There are particular challenges to upland farms, small family farms and tenant farms. Those three groups are facing the greatest challenges. On top of that, as we heard from the noble Lord moving this debate, there are geopolitical challenges: hostilities in Ukraine and the Middle East are threatening the supply chain, increasing costs, and, closer to home, clean energy schemes are taking 10% of some of the most productive farmland out of farming. The countryside is being blighted by solar farms, battery storage plants, wind turbines, pylons and overhead wire transmission. These schemes are threatening house prices and ruining the peace and quiet enjoyment of rural dwellers. The Government are focusing more on nature, oblivious to the fact that farmers have a closer and better understanding of farming than anybody else. They are wedded more to the environment than to boosting food production, yet environmental schemes do not put food on the table. I urge the Government to increase food security and resilience to the risk factors and increase our self-sufficiency in food.

Market towns such as Thirsk, Malton and Pickering are the hub of the rural economy. Often, in areas such as North Yorkshire with a thriving livestock presence, there is a mart. I urge everyone to visit their local mart because it will have some of the best food.

The future of livestock production must be ensured. Farmers, as we have heard, are the unsung heroes at the heart of the rural economy, not just producing food to eat but performing vital functions such as clearing the roads of snow in winter, draining low-lying watercourses at times of floods and manning parish councils. I urge the Government to seek mutual recognition rather than realignment of standards with the EU and, more especially, to refocus the rural economy and ensure that all their efforts, through land use and management, prioritise farming and food production over energy and environmental schemes. The Government started off promising a lot on the rural economy. Now they must deliver.