The document summarizes a presentation given by the West Sussex Rural Partnership on March 19th, 2012 about the rural economy in their region known as C2C. The presentation covered opportunities and threats to the rural economy, an overview of the Rural Partnership organization, statistics about growing sectors like knowledge jobs and home-based businesses, issues around limited broadband access, and key messages about supporting small business growth and improving skills training and housing costs. The Rural Partnership aims to promote social and economic development in the rural areas of West Sussex.

2. West Sussex Rural Partnership
The rural economy of
the C2C area
19 March 2012
Slide no. 2

3. Presenters
q Jeremy Leggett – CEO AirS
q Roger Paterson – Chair of the Rural Partnership
19 March 2012
Slide no. 3

4. Scope of C2C’s rural area
19 March 2012
Slide no. 4

5. Opportunities and threats
q Opportunities
 South Downs National Park – duty to promote social and
economic development (11% of rural West Sussex pop.)
 Thriving small rural towns with strong community partnerships
 Highly entrepreneurial land based sector on the Chichester
plain
 Rapid job creation within home-based and micro-business
sector
q Threats
 “No change” lobby amongst those living in rural areas but
personally disconnected from the local economy
 Limited broadband access
 Demographic change
19 March 2012
Slide no. 5

6. The Rural Partnership
q Pre-dates the Gatwick Diamond and Coastal Partnerships
q Encompasses social, economic and environmental interests
q Leadership and secretariat provided by the charity Action in
rural Sussex with financial support from WSCC and DEFRA
q Has acted as a broad ‘stakeholder’ group for a number of
initiatives to promote rural access to services and to tackle
rural disadvantage
q Has ‘spun off’:
 ERDP Leader Local Action Groups
 Rural Skills and Enterprise Group
q Currently reviewing structure and raising level of ‘decision
maker’ engagement
19 March 2012
Slide no. 6

7. Growing the rural economy (1)
q Jobs and the knowledge economy are growing in rural
West Sussex (2003-8)
 Although the no.of jobs in the rural wards
increased by nearly 11% or 6,500….
 ….the no.of jobs in urban areas declined by a 6,500
or 2.4% of urban jobs.
 Knowledge economy jobs grew in the rural wards
by 20%, or 3,300 jobs.
q Manufacturing is the biggest rural sector in terms of
jobs - 12.5%
19 March 2012
Slide no. 7

8. Growing the rural economy (2)
q Land based employment is the second smallest sector
 This sector represents just 1.2 % of businesses in the
rural area.
 However, there are signs of growth in new areas such as
viticulture.
q Large numbers of fast growing rural home based businesses
 Based on 2008 GEM research (30k base):
 56% of all UK businesses home based
 61% of start ups home based
 54% of entrepreneurs plan home base
 3 times more HBB in rural areas (CRC!)
19 March 2012
Slide no. 8

9. Broadband
q Market failure
 Poor rural broadband access is a case of fundamental market failure
– regulation and intervention must be triggered in relation to the
urban market offer ie capacity and price
q Intervention and regulation
 A strategic framework to make use of all private and public assets to
reach 90% of rural people needs to be put in place; administrative
and commercially restrictive obstacles must be cleared out of the
way.
q The community role
 We can help communities to reach the last 10%, but only if there is a
coherent financial and technical framework within which their
contribution makes sense and can be sustained.
q Demand stimulation / registration
 Made more difficult by current very poor service
19 March 2012
Slide no. 9

10. Key messages
q Remove the barriers and small business will grow by
itself
q Young people are the future but access to skills
training is poor
q Cost of housing is out of step with incomes in the
rural economy
q Ditch the myths about the rural economy and build on
success
19 March 2012
Slide no. 10