Report urges rural businesses to do better (From Evesham Journal)

Report urges rural businesses to do better

11:00am Thursday 12th June 2008

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BUSINESSES in Evesham are being urged to fulfil their potential and help reduce poverty in a new report by one of the government's leading advisors.

Dr Stuart Burgess, the rural advocate and chairman of the commission for rural communities, praised Evesham's entrepreneurial culture while underlining a host of recommendations for unlocking the area's potential in a report handed to the Prime Minister recently.

Dr Burgess, who visited Evesham after last year's floods, said: "In my visits to rural areas I am constantly reminded how enterprising people are and how many diverse and successful firms and resilient communities we have.

"My report records their economic strengths and the substantial contribution they already make to the nation's economic performance, with 30 per cent of England's businesses in rural areas.

"These firms generate £325 billion for the economy yet when you compare this with the output of the same amount of companies in urban areas, you realise there is a lot of potential yet to be realised.

"This unfulfilled potential could be anywhere between £236 and £347 billion per annum and we need to make sure better support is provided to help businesses bridge this gap."

Dr Burgess believes economic contributions could be more than doubled by lifting the performance of medium and larger firms, and by attracting more investment and by increasing the capacity to innovate.

In turn, he says this will help reduce worklessness and poverty in rural areas, close the gap between rural and urban wages and make more communities resilient against future economic and environmental shocks.

Dr Burgess added: "I look forward to government - nationally, regionally and locally - being inspired to seize this opportunity and focus coordinated efforts on the needs of rural businesses, employees and residents, not just for the benefit of rural England, but the entire nation."

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