1. Rural Enterprise:
From Evidence to
Actions
Roger Turner and Jane
Atterton
Rural Enterprise Workshop
3 September 2014

2. 22
The work we are doing
• Rationale
– Gaps in evidence about rural enterprises
– Assumption that rural economies are only made up of land-
based businesses
– Evolving policy/programme context (e.g. innovation, economic
growth, public sector budgetary pressures, community
ownership and empowerment, city regions, new SRDP, etc)
– Enterprise Research Centre event in February 2014
• Currently writing two Rural Policy Centre Policy
Briefings
• Interested in your ideas about gaps in knowledge and
evidence and how to fill them

3. 33
Structure of the Presentation
Part 1
• Policy context for rural enterprise
– Economic, employment, enterprise etc. policies
– Rural strategies and documents
• Institutional context for rural business support
• Key issues to highlight
Part 2
• Rural Enterprises: What do we know and not
know?
• Some examples of how LEADER could support
rural business activities

4. 44
‘Economic Policy’ context

5. 55
‘Rural policy’ context

6. 66
Some organisations offering (rural) business
support services

7. 77
Key Issues to Highlight
• Rural is mainstreamed
– But this requires a strong evidence base
– Need to recognise important contribution of rural
enterprises…
– And that rural economies contain more than just land-
based activities…
– And that rural and urban economies are strongly inter-
linked, therefore need for a place-based (i.e. not
sectoral) approach
• Business support landscape is complex
– Potential role of LEADER…?

8. 88
Rural enterprise – what we know
• Five industries dominate rural economies’ outputs
• High rural share of employment in Scotland’s priority
sectors
• Most rural employment in very small firms - boosting job
creation and recruitment has wider rural effect than in towns
& cities; but
• Growth aspirations often linked to raising turnover and
profits, reluctant to take on new employees
• Some groups leaving rural areas because lack of
employment
• Raising skills is only part of answer to
filling vacancies - Hard to fill vacancies
linked to remote locations, poor transport
and unaffordable housing

9. 99
Rural enterprise – what we don’t know
• Nature, needs, markets, contributions and growth/
decline trends for firms in key rural industries; see eg.
http://enterpriseresearch.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Out-of-the-shadows-formatted.pdf
• Profile of non-land rural enterprises at sub-regional and
local level
• Rural nature and impact of key drivers of economic
growth
• How well (or not) rural is mainstreamed in core
economic strategies, programmes
and measures
• Profile of Unregistered firms, Large
firms, and rural workplaces of urban
(and rural) Enterprises

10. 1010
Supporting leading rural industries?
Construction
• One of largest stocks of rural
Enterprises
• Declined recently
• Businesses found throughout rural
Scotland
• Dominated by sole traders/micro/
small firms, especially for
employment
• Rurally distinctive - agricultural
buildings, property maintenance
and heritage/ listed building skills
• Informal networking good, but
LEADER support for formal
networking could boost training,
employment and procurement
Mining, quarrying & utilities
• Rural Scotland’s largest revenue
earner
• Declined recently
• Businesses are concentrated in a
few areas
• Dominated by sole traders/micro/
small firms, but
• High earnings come from just 75
medium and large firms
• More likely to be domain of
Business Gateway/HIE/SE; but
• LEADER support could help local
(conservation) quarries and
utilities such as local fuel
deliverers
10

11. 1111
Sustainable Tourism
Productivity of those employed in Sustainable
Tourism in Eilean Siar was higher than that of
workers in Edinburgh’s tourism industry.
Productivity is output (GVA) per worker
Sustainable tourism industry includes:

12. 1212
Supporting leading rural industries?
• Wholesale, retail and repairs is lead non-land industry in
Remote areas for number of firms and £turnover
• Key community service, and producers’ outlet
• Diversity in premises, locations and goods - farms, home (click-
based), bicycles, churches and shops; cars, petrol, money,
phones, food and staples
• We need better rural evidence of this
variety of goods, services, customers,
gaps and trends. Repairs and local
wholesalers are neglected territory.
• Retailers collaborate on some issues, (eg promotion) rarely
carried into training, suppliers and regulatory support
• LEADER support for business starts and growth should be un-
hindered by premises, and consider job creation for retailers and
producers rather than for a shop.

13. 1313
Group Discussion(until 12.15)
• Having heard the presentations this morning, what
do you still need to know to best target the small
business support funding in your area?