Countryside 'green' firms aim to push UK growth

Rural England had a "resilience" to the recession and will play a big role in the country's economic recovery, a report suggests today.

The Commission for Rural Communities said countryside businesses would create new "green" jobs and provide high levels of entrepreneurship to help Britain's economy turn around.

The report found that during the recession unemployment figures were lower in the countryside than urban areas. Unemployment increased by 2.1% in rural areas compared with 2.3% in more populated places.

Findings also show that there continues to be proportionately fewer rural business insolvencies than in towns and cities.

The Commission for Rural Communities chairman, Stuart Burgess, said: "This year's report offers some intriguing insights into how people living and working in rural areas have fared in the economic downturn.

"While the recession has hit rural areas hard, with some rural areas experiencing greater increases in unemployment than urban ones, rural businesses have higher rates of survival.

"Rural businesses contribute substantially to the nation's prosperity, adding £144,639 million in gross value added in 2007."

He added: "The report shows that rural England has some huge strengths and none more relevant at this time than the enduring sense of community which enables many communities to compensate for the lack of local services which their urban counterparts have taken for granted, for example high-speed broadband.

"Indeed, rural communities could provide models of how others can be empowered to do the same at a time of public sector retrenchment and austerity."