L6 - Rural areas.

Question 1

What does ‘rural area’ mean?

Answer 1

An area of countryside where people live in villages. About 19% of the UK’s populations live in rural areas.

Question 2

Rural areas face lots of challenges:

Decline of farming:

Answer 2

Lots of farms have gone out of business, this is because the money that is available to help them are being cut, and because competition from supermarkets is driving prices down.

Question 3

Rural areas face lots of challenges:

High house prices:

Answer 3

In some villages, up to 50% of the houses are owned as second homes. This means that during the week/ winter they are like ‘ghost towns’ and local services like shops and pubs don’t have enough customers to survive.

Question 4

Rural areas face lots of challenges:

Loss of service:

Answer 4

Many people living in rural areas depend on the services there i.e. shops, post office, doctors. If people move away from the area they may not have enough customers to survive and might have to close.

Question 5

Rural areas face lots of challenges:

Rural depopulation:

Answer 5

There are a lack of job opportunities in rural areas, and those jobs that are there pay low wages. This means that people often have to leave rural areas - particular young people. This is called ‘brain drain’. This causes a vicious circle, where as people leave services in villages might close down.