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Transcript of Measuring Socially and Economically Sustainable Rural Communities A policy based approach Pippa...
Measuring Socially and Economically Sustainable Rural
Communities
A policy based approach
Pippa GibsonDefra
Overview• Rural definitions– Definition– Classification
• Measuring Socially and Economically Sustainable Rural Communities– Background– Selecting indicators – Measuring success– Examples– Next steps
• Conclusions
How to define rural?
• Rural Definition developed in 2004• Start by dividing England into a grid of hectare
square cells (100m x 100m) • Every postal address grouped into hectare cell
into which it falls• Residential density is calculated for all cells for
a series of radii around each cell• Based on the residential density and the
relationships between radii, the ‘underlying settlement classification’ is created
How to define rural?
• Settlements are defined by morphology and context
• Urban cut off is 10,000 population• Within rural, there are three settlement types:
town and fringe, villages, and hamlets and isolated dwellings.
• The context of each settlement is also taken into account. The most remote areas are defined as being in a “sparse” context.
How to define rural?
The definition takes the form of:
Urban Rural
Town/ fringe
Village Isolated dwellings
Town/ fringe
Village Isolated dwellings
Sparse Less sparseSparse Less sparse
England
How to define rural?
Can group by settlement type:
Urban Rural
Town/ fringe
Village Isolated dwellings
Town/ fringe
Village Isolated dwellings
Sparse Less sparseSparse Less sparse
England
How to define rural?
Can group by settlement type:
Urban Rural
Town/ fringe
Village Isolated dwellings
Town/ fringe
Village Isolated dwellings
Sparse Less sparseSparse Less sparse
England
How to define rural?
Can group by settlement type:
Urban Rural
Town/ fringe
Village Isolated dwellings
Town/ fringe
Village Isolated dwellings
Sparse Less sparseSparse Less sparse
England
How to define rural?
Or by sparsity:
Urban Rural
Town/ fringe
Village Isolated dwellings
Town/ fringe
Village Isolated dwellings
Sparse Less sparseSparse Less sparse
England
How to define rural?
Or by sparsity:
Urban Rural
Town/ fringe
Village Isolated dwellings
Town/ fringe
Village Isolated dwellings
Sparse Less sparseSparse Less sparse
England
How to define rural?
• This is very useful to examine differences between different types of rural settlement - doesn’t assume that all rural areas are the same
• Data need to be at a sufficiently small spatial scale to apply this definition
• Often data are published at a higher geographical level – so need classification to take account of this
Local Authority classification
• Data are often only published at local authority level (equivalent to NUTS4) – Disclosure– Coverage
• Using the Rural Definition as a base, we can classify local authorities on a six-point scale of rural to urban
Criteria behind the LA classification:• Major Urban: districts with either 100,000 people or 50 percent of
their population in an urban area with a population of more than 750,000;
• Large Urban: districts with either 50,000 people or 50 percent of their population in one of 17 urban areas with a population between 250,000 and 750,000;
• Other Urban: districts with less than 26 percent of their population in rural settlements and larger market towns;
• Significant Rural: districts with more than 26 percent of their population in rural settlements and larger market towns;
• Rural-50: districts with at least 50 percent but less than 80 percent of their population in rural settlements and larger market towns;
• Rural-80: districts with at least 80 percent of their population in rural settlements and larger market towns
Measuring Socially and Economically Sustainable Rural Communities
• One of Defra's key objectives• Measured in two parts:
– The evidenced needs of rural people and communities are addressed through mainstream public policy and delivery
– Economic growth is supported in rural areas with the lowest levels of performance
‘Mainstreaming’ objective - theory
• Government targets policy in all areas, regardless of whether they are urban or rural
• Defra aims to monitor whether a range of Government policies are impacting in rural areas as much as in urban areas
• A range of policy areas are monitored: education, health, housing, crime, social capital and poverty
Economic objective
• This also looks at whether rural areas are at a disadvantage compared with England as a whole, but focus on economic indicators
• A variety of economic areas are monitored: earnings, employment, adult skills, business investment and enterprise.
Measuring these indicators
• Indicators were chosen not only for their relevance but also for their availability
• Data must ideally be available at a low spatial level to apply the Definition:– Census output areas (population ~300)– Super output areas (population ~1,500)– Wards (population ~5000)
• Only if this is not available, use local authority level data
Selection of indicators
• Within each sub-theme a range of measureable indicators is selected
• E.g. Health sub-theme measured by:– Life expectancy– Potential years of life lost from cancer, stroke,
heart disease, suicide– Infant mortality
• Data on provision of social care not available so this indicator not selected
Measuring success
• Aim is NOT for rural areas to out-perform urban areas or the national average
• Rural areas should perform as well as the England average
• If they perform below average, the trend should suggest improvement
Example results
Number of entrants to higher education
• Data are available by ward, so can use the Rural Definition
• Aggregate number of entrants for each category
• Present as a rate per 1,000 18-20 year olds (because populations are very different in rural and urban areas)
Housing affordability
Ratio of earnings to house prices
• Data only available by local authority, so use LA classification
• Present as a population weighted average of earnings: house price ratio
Economic growth
Productivity
• Gross Value Added data available but not published at local authority level
• When aggregated to the LA classification we can publish the figures
• Advantage of having lower level data is that we can separate out the London authorities which tells a very different story
Next steps/future work
• Mainstreaming indicators: research programme– Reasons for differences?– Averages mask localised disadvantage?– Share results with lead Department
• “Lowest performing” rural areas?– Which areas are performing as well as they can?– Which areas could perform better?
Conclusions
• No single indicator can measure ‘socially and economically sustainable rural communities’
• Nor can a set of indicators fully reflect every aspect of rural life
• BUT a range of Government priorities can be monitored using available data and robust rural definition/classifications
• Sound evidence base enables Government to focus on areas with greatest indication of need