Rural poverty is getting worse – and welfare harder to access

By Mark Shucksmith, Professor of Planning, Newcastle University, Newcastle University
Jane Atterton, Senior Lecturer and Manager of the Rural Policy Centre, Scotland's Rural College
Jayne Glass, Researcher in Geography, Uppsala University

In Britain, people imagine poverty as mainly an urban phenomenon. We think of poverty as rundown housing estates or tower blocks, far from the idyllic countryside scenes of shows like Escape to the Country.

But this is only part of the picture. Poverty in rural areas is more widespread than people might think. Fifty per cent of rural households experienced poverty at some point between 1991-2008 (54% in towns and cities). Surveys by the Financial Conduct Authority, an…

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