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As Rural Development assumes a greater importance in European policy, one strategy to
stimulate economic activity across a broad range of sectors is to use small towns as a focal
point for economic development. This may be particularly relevant in the UK where there
is increasing concern over the future vitality and viability of these towns. However, such a
strategy rests on the assumption that there is a strong level of interdependence between
small towns and their surrounding areas. While their historical legacy suggests close
integration, developments in the wider economy and resultant socio-economic
restructuring have undermined the traditional functions of small towns and may have
severed many of these local linkages.
Methodologies are developed to measure the size and spatial distribution of economic
linkages in and around two small towns in rural England; one located in the 'remote' area
of South Devon, and one in more 'accessible' Buckinghamshire. Results from two
validation exercises indicate that self-completion methods are a useful means of obtaining
spatial economic data from producers and consumers. Analysis compares the degree of
economic integration of the towns into their respective local economies, and identifies key
characteristics of firms and households that are good predictors of strong local integration.
Results show that the strength of local economic integration is a function of economic and
demographic structure as well as proximity to urban centres. This illustrates that the
functional role of small towns in the economy is a more useful criterion on which to base
policy recommendations than is demographic size. The town in the 'remote' rural area is
found to be more strongly integrated into its locality than the town in the 'accessible' area;
indicating that benefits of intervention are more likely to 'trickle out' into the surrounding
area in the former case. Further, the minimal role of agriculture in the local economy
implies that traditional measures of farm support are no longer likely to provide a valuable
method of supporting rural communities. A useful area for subsequent enquiry would be to
employ an 'integration index' to develop settlement typologies so that more generalisations
can be made to aid the process of policy formulation. |
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