Bella Bathurst: Why dreams of the rural idyll put our countryside at risk

There has been outcry at plans to build on the green belt. But country people are under pressure already as the high numbers of second homes drain the lifeblood of the rural economy, reports Bella Bathurst

Every now and again, maybe during a damp bank holiday weekend or on a Thursday afternoon stuck in the office, people's thoughts turn to a place in the country. Whether it means a fortifying yomp up the nearest high fell, a few hours fishing, or just a gentle slide from the lunch table towards afternoon oblivion, the idyll remains more or less intact: a house, a family, a garden, the Great British Countryside. If only I could have a little bit of that, maybe I would be happy. More relaxed. Maybe.

The reality - 14 unspeaking hours on an M5 contraflow, plus a further 14 hours of monsoon rain, plus two days spent swearing at the children and trying to find an emergency plumber - just doesn't seem to hold the same weight.

Four-fifths of the UK population now live in cities; three-quarters of them, according to a recent survey, say they wish they didn't. Last week headlines were demanding 'What price green and pleasant England?' after it was revealed that a government-commissioned report had suggested building on large parts of the green belt. What about our rural idyll? Is it under threat?

And what an idyll it is, or we suppose it is. There's something distinctly pornographic about property brochures, with their hyperventilating adjectives and their damn-the-consequences talk of medieval tithe barns, private coastal paths and Georgian rectories. Buy magnificent chickens! Plant a well-appointed orchard! Forget about commuting and dirty streets - move to Shangri-la!

But not everything in the country is as lovely as it first appears. We, the four-fifths who live in cities, sentimentalise rural Britain, but the more we revere it, the more we appear to have stopped thinking of it as important.

The country has become a lifestyle choice, like Agas or riding lessons, but those who do move there full-time are considered to have slunk away from the city in defeat, or gone for the children, or shaved the sharper edges off their ambitions. Nobody believes that anything significant goes on in the countryside any more. The city is where it's at; the countryside is what you do when you've done the really important stuff.

The countryside has become a dream in the same way that childhood has become a dream; a place where everything is pure and nothing is real. A Liverpool University researcher, Francine Watkins, spent three months 'undercover' in a village in Oxfordshire and published her findings as a PhD thesis, making the shocking discovery that rural life was not, in fact, idyllic, but full of disturbingly realistic people who, like their urban counterparts, occasionally got divorced or had affairs or turned out to be bigots and homophobes. The more we exalt the countryside, the more we seem to devalue the two groups - the farmers and the key workers - who make any of it possible.

Three-quarters of the UK land area is used for agriculture, though it only employs half a million people - 1.7 per cent of the total workforce. Most are ageing, and the numbers in every sector except dairy are still falling. According to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, a quarter of farmers have a net income of 'less than zero' and a further half have an income of less than £10,000. And, though there may be no such thing as a farmer who doesn't grumble, their suicide levels are frightening - double that of any other employment sector, and rising.

I spoke to Bob Hasell-McCosh, who runs a mixed farm of 300 acres near Keswick in the Lake District and who tells of a life of static incomes and reliance on subsidies. He is unequivocal; as things are at present, the economics of farming almost guarantee dependence on payments. Would he encourage his children to go into farming? 'No. The income is so low that it's too risky now.

'What we get for our sheep is the same as we were getting 20 years ago, and the cattle prices are roughly the same. What other business could you run where your income is static for 20 years, all your costs have gone up, and it's only buoyed up by subsidies?'

A 2004 report entitled 'Hard Times' backs him up. It says farming incomes in the Peak District dropped by 75 per cent in the previous 10 years. Average incomes were £7,482 a year for a 58-hour working week; without subsidies, most farms would be in debt by around £2,300 per annum.

Many now believe that, in a few years' time, there will only be three types of farm left; the huge amalgamated farms such as those in East Anglia, a few small specialist farms, and the hobby farms of the very rich. For the rest, the economics just won't work. But, as Bob Hasell-McCosh points out, a farmer giving up his land finds it as wrenching as a skipper abandoning ship. 'There are very few farmers who will sell unless they're forced to. Yes, the farm buildings might nowadays be worth a million pounds, but most farmers hang on.'

At risk is the whole nature of Britain's rural economy. And it is not just farmers. In the most coveted areas of England - Cornwall and the Lake District - nurses, firefighters, teachers and shop workers are being forced to turn down jobs because of the lack of affordable accommodation. In the most picturesque villages, there are now so few locals that the infrastructure has begun to break down, forcing primary schools, shops and health centres to close in the absence of anyone to either use them or staff them.

Who is to blame? Well, us city types, actually. Keen for a heady whiff of the rural life, we're all stuffing our urban pounds into second homes. True figures on second home ownership in Britain are difficult to obtain, but estimates for England vary between 166,000 (the Association of Second Home Owners), 242,000 (the government) and 500,000 (the estate agents). In truth, it's probably higher; at present, local authorities are not bound to provide data and owners do not have to declare the property as a second home unless they want to claim a council tax rebate. Anecdotally, some wards in Cornwall and the Lake District are up to 80 per cent second homes.

Padstow and Newquay were the focus of attention this year when an organisation calling itself the Cornish National Liberation Army (CNLA) made threats against Rick Stein and Jamie Oliver's operations in the towns, accusing them of driving up house prices and pushing out the Cornish.

Stein's influence on Padstow has been profound; he owns eight separate businesses in the town. And a recent survey put Padstow as the second most expensive seaside town in Britain, with the average price of a house at £334,385. Stein refused to comment, but Will Ashworth, director of Jamie Oliver's Fifteen Cornwall operation in Newquay, said they were disappointed by the threats and pointed out that the restaurant's aim was to provide opportunities for locals.

But Padstow and Newquay are not unique. Average house prices in Cornwall are now £226,852 and prices in most areas have risen by more than 300 per cent in the past 10 years. In many parts of the county, prices are comparable to central London, while local wages are still way below the national average.

Matthew Taylor, Lib Dem MP for Truro and St Austell, has campaigned on the issue. 'It's starting to cause a degree of panic among the locals because many of them can't see a way for their children to live nearby. I see doctors, teachers and nurses who are unable to afford homes. In some cases, they've been forced to turn down jobs because they can't find anywhere to live.'

The buyers themselves remain unrepentant, claiming that local authorities are to blame for failing to provide enough cheap housing in rural areas. A spokesman for the Second Home Owners' Club says 'Second homes are a symptom, not a cause. The rise in second homes was part of a reaction to the economic decline in rural areas - the loss of fishing, shipbuilding, crafts, and other industries,' he says. 'If second home owners hadn't come into those areas and restored many of the buildings, then they just would have become derelict.'

Kate Tregunner, aged 34, is a medical lab assistant at Treliske Hospital in Cornwall. She moved from the village of Grampound to Truro for work and has been looking for somewhere permanent to live ever since. She earns slightly less than £15,000, and £15,000 is the minimum earnings threshold for affordable housing in the area. She can't afford to rent a flat privately and is renting a room in a house nearby. The local council isn't able to house her because there isn't enough housing stock to accommodate anyone but the homeless, the disabled and the old.

At times, Tregunner sounds close to despair. 'I can't agree with what the CNLA are trying to do, but I do recognise how frustrating it is. There's a couple of internet sites which say: "If you want cheap housing in Cornwall, get a tent", and they're right.'

Tregunner does not blame second-homers in particular, but she is sure that they contribute to the issue. 'To be honest, the second-homers are in a different bracket. The kind of houses they're buying are way out of reach of most Cornish people, but they do push the prices up.There are some villages like Porthleven where 80 per cent of the houses are second homes. In winter, they're completely dead.'

So maybe it isn't the countryside that needs its head examined. Maybe it's us, the urban population, with our insidious dreams of innocence and a swift killing on the property market. The situation isn't all bad. But in some parts of Britain it's unquestionably desperate.

Contributor

Bella Bathurst

The GuardianTramp

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