Dartmoor, Exmoor, the Pennines, Lake District, Yorkshire Dales and North York Moors are among England’s highest and most beautiful places. But their economies face huge challenges. On Thursday, the government published a report, Towards a flourishing uplands: phase 1, including a bold new approach based on a partnership between government, communities and local businesses.
Written by social innovator Hilary Cottam, author of the bestselling books Radical Help and The Work We Need, the report highlights 19 challenges identified while walking and talking with people living in the uplands, as part of a project with the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).
The report reveals upland economies where big, wealthy farms (often with absentee owners) dominate, small farms struggle and young people can’t get a foothold, not least owing to a lack of the right kind of finance – though those who do often prove remarkably innovative. Farmers and environmentalists are often at war, not collaborating to find win-wins (“industrialised environmentalism” is not helping). “Core infrastructure is missing” from markets to butchers to vets, the report notes. “The closure of local abattoirs is a particular source of distress and reduced profits.”
Other public services are less available in the uplands than elsewhere and poverty is relatively high. The report notes many complaints about Defra which, for that reason alone, deserves praise for publishing it.
Something needs to be done, and having written the report, Cottam has agreed to help. With the Defra director general for food, biosecurity and trade, she will co-lead an “experiment” on Dartmoor between local leaders and government to transform the economic and social system in seven years. It will not be easy, but given how bad things are, it is certainly worth trying.
Photograph: Tony West/Getty
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