Most Suffolk rural residents feel neglected, MP finds
A report headed by Jenny Riddell-Carpenter, MP for Suffolk Coastal, sought the views of more than 1,400 people
Most rural residents believe their communities have been neglected and overlooked for more than a decade, a Suffolk MP has found.
A report headed by Jenny Riddell-Carpenter, MP for Suffolk Coastal, as part of the Labour Rural Research Group (LRRG), sought the views of more than 1,400 people in a bid to drive and influence rural policy.
It showed nearly three in four rural residents in Suffolk and across the country felt their communities were neglected and overlooked for 15 years.
Meanwhile, despite a strong local identity, around one in two residents felt young people were forced to leave their communities behind to succeed.
Ms Riddell-Carpenter said: “This new report looks at some of the broad challenges, and indeed some of the misguided stereotypes that hold rural areas back.
“We clearly have so much to give – Suffolk Coastal, for instance, is the engine of growth for Suffolk as a whole, and is critical to our national ambitions – but it is also proudly rural.”
The main priority on where money should be spent mirrored national trends, with a heavy focus on the NHS and healthcare, though made particularly worse in rural areas due to difficult access to services.
The report showed, however, strong support for money to be spent on agriculture and the rural economy, with the environment as a priority.
The call for investment and willingness for local development, supported by more than 65 per cent of residents, Ms Riddell-Carpenter said, was against a backdrop of those living in rural communities being unfairly portrayed as NIMBYs.
The term NIMBY (Not In My Backyard) refers to residents objecting to projects being located too close to where they live while supporting similar bids elsewhere.
It has become a way of criticising people for intentionally blocking development without a good reason to do so — Ms Riddell-Carpenter has called for it to stop.
She said: “We need to put the term ‘NIMBYism’ to bed. It excludes a whole set of voters from a conversation about what local growth and local opportunity mean for them, in their area.
“But if we capture what matters locally, build in for nature, and make growth inclusive for our rural areas, we can succeed where the previous Government failed.”
Instead, development should respect and reflect the residents’ deep connection to land, nature and local identity.
The research group has promised to continue diving into what makes rural communities tick, with a work under way looking at rural poverty, its causes and how to best address it.