The U.K.: Rural development, issues and analysis*

This paper reviews the literature relating to rural development issues in Britain. The issues of depopulation and the decline of employment were dominant con-cerns in rural development up to the mid-1970s. Since then, the phenomena of counterurbanisation and the urban-rural manufacturing shift, and their consequences for rural areas, have become major themes. The spatial orientation of the subject has prompted some applications of techniques derived from regional economics. A greater body of research has concerned economic evalu-ation. Early studies relating to land use have been followed by applications to the issues of environmental change, settlement planning and employment, while some use has been made of Environmental Impact Analysis. The final section highlights some elements of the debate over policies for rural development and the institutional framework for their implementation. 1. Defining rural areas The empirical problems of distinguishing rural from urban areas have been tackled in many different ways. In practice, the transition is gradual and no single line can be drawn between urban and rural, but for purposes of analysis some distinction is often required. The earliest official approach has been to base analysis on administrative boundaries. This was a convenient, if somewhat ap-proximate basis until local government reorganisation in England and Wales (in 1974) and in Scotland (in 1975), which generally amalgamated towns and their rural hinterlands into single authorities. * The- authors aie grateful for comments from Marie Svhucksmith. Errors are nevertheless their own responsibility