1 Economic performance in rural England

English economic policy requires different levels of government to pursue incommensurate, urban-centric, objectives. Rural areas are characterised by ‘softer ’ development approaches centring on relocalisation. Measuring rural economic performance is obscured by the simultaneous use of two spatial platforms: the ‘city-region ’ and the ‘rural definition’. The characteristics of these spatial platforms for measuring rural economic performance are explored through plant level productivity data. In general, English rural districts are less productive but particularly where they are both lagging and fall outside city regions. The city-region platform makes the rural productivity performance look worse than it really is but since 2000, rural districts have not been charged with pursuing productivity objectives anyway