Farming Must Be Central To Economic Reset, Report Warns

Labour is being urged to place farming and rural businesses at the heart of its economic plans, after new research suggested that closing England’s rural productivity gap could generate an additional £22.5 billion in economic output.

The report, The Future of the Rural Economy, was produced by the Labour Rural Research Group in partnership with the Country Land and Business Association (CLA). It argues that rural communities are too often treated as peripheral, despite their crucial contribution to food security, energy production, housing, nature recovery and economic growth.

Polling commissioned for the study found overwhelming public support for a strong domestic farming sector, with 87 per cent of respondents saying it was important to the UK’s future.

A further 77 per cent said they would support increased investment in British farming where this strengthened national food security, while 63 per cent believed Labour should give rural communities and the rural economy greater priority than they had received in recent years.

Support crossed political lines, including 71 per cent of Labour voters, 70 per cent of Conservative voters, 74 per cent of Liberal Democrat voters and 66 per cent of Reform voters.

According to the report, rural England generated £259 billion in Gross Value Added in 2023. However, its contribution to national output has fallen from around 19 per cent in 2001 to approximately 12 per cent today.

Productivity across predominantly rural local authority areas is estimated to be around eight per cent below the England average. The report calculates that eliminating this gap could unlock a further £22.5 billion for the economy.

Rather than reflecting a lack of enterprise or ambition, the study attributes the disparity to longstanding structural barriers, including weak transport links, inadequate digital connectivity, housing shortages, recruitment difficulties, planning delays and limited access to finance and public services.

The authors are calling for a cross-government rural economic strategy, stronger rural proofing of national policies and targeted investment in transport, infrastructure, broadband and housing.

They also recommend additional support for rural businesses seeking to expand, a dedicated workforce strategy to tackle skills shortages and clearer national policies covering land use, domestic food security and environmental markets.

CLA president Gavin Lane said public support for rural Britain was clear, but warned that farmers and countryside businesses remained under severe pressure.

“The public are on the side of rural Britain, and they expect the next government to be too,” he said.

“There is no more time to waste on endless consultations and talking-shop committees.”

James Naish, vice-chair of the Labour Rural Research Group and lead author of the report, said Labour’s economic growth plans would succeed only if their benefits reached every part of the country.

“Rural communities shouldn’t be seen as peripheral to national renewal – they are places where growth can be generated, productivity unlocked and national priorities delivered, from food security, nature restoration and flood mitigation to new housing and energy generation,” he said.

The polling was conducted by Opinium between 1 and 3 July 2026 and involved 2,050 nationally and politically representative respondents.

The report concludes that putting farming and rural communities at the centre of economic policy could strengthen domestic food security, unlock investment and ensure that future economic growth extends beyond Britain’s major cities.