Their comments are given in a report, Challenging the rural idyll, published jointly last week by the Countryside Agency and the charity NCH. The report was commissioned by the Countryside Agency to seek the views of families and children living on low incomes in rural England.
Most respondents received state benefits and supplemented either part-time or low-paid jobs with Working Families Tax Credit. They said that because of the narrow range of jobs available to them, they lacked employment opportunities and scope for career progression.
People were prevented from getting jobs by a combination of high childcare costs and poor-quality public transport. Owning a car was 'an absolute necessity' for rural living, though in many households the wage earner used it to go to work, leaving a parent at home with the children cut off from wider social and support networks.
Although there seemed to be little difference in the health of people living in the countryside compared with towns, access to health services in rural areas was difficult, the report said. It added, 'Specialist services require arduous journeys to hospitals and for those on low incomes there was the added financial burden of transport and accommodation.' The report found that rural primary schools were 'relatively stable and contributed to the quality of life of the community', although many interviewees felt they were an under-used resource, especially in evenings and at weekends. As for leisure and recreation activities, almost all respondents - children, young people and adults - agreed that 'there is nothing to do'.
Annie Mullins, NCH senior public policy adviser, said, 'Women, particularly lone mothers, find life difficult in rural areas because of limited options for childcare and work. There are just not the same support services in the countryside that there are in towns, so providers must think about how they can provide services to people in rural areas and get the services to the people rather than the opposite as is the case at present.' Pam Warhurst, deputy chair of the Countryside Agency, said, 'Just as rural poverty has been overlooked by many policymakers, so too the needs of children in the countryside have been neglected. This report demonstrates the stark realities facing people struggling to bring up their families, often in beautiful surroundings, cut off from many of the essential services that most people take for granted.'
For the report, 138 people aged eight to 63 were interviewed through NCH rural projects across England.
