Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what estimate she has made of the number of people who will (a) leave and (b) join the labour market in rural areas before 2025.

To inform Defra’s policy brief on the rural economy published on 27 December 2014, an estimate was included for how much employment in rural areas could increase by 2025. This assumed employment could grow at the rate of projected population growth in rural areas (derived from Office for National Statistics population projections). Further details can be found in the policy brief: www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/390767/policy-brief-rural-productivity-pb14252.pdf