Market Towns

Island Communities in the UK

A (renewed) policy focus on island communities in the UK…?

While islands are areas of land surrounded by water, many are little more than barren rock with few plants on them and others are amongst the most crowded places on Earth. The largest British island is Great Britain which is the ninth-largest and third most populated island in the world. There are also some 32 islands in England (with the Isle of Wight being the largest); more than 790 islands in Scotland (with Lewis and Harris the largest in the British Isles after the British and Irish mainlands); 11 islands in Wales (with Anglesey the biggest); and 7 islands in Northern Ireland. What are the needs and aspirations of island communities and how can we ensure these are recognised by policy and decision makers? Jessica Sellick investigates.

On 12 July 2017 the first ever meeting of the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for UK islands was held. Chaired by Isle of Wight MP Bob Seely, the group comprises officers from Ynys Mon, Na h-Eileanan an Iar and Orkney & Shetland; with other members drawn from constituencies including Worthing, Hyndburn, Hayling Island, Glasgow, Argyll & Bute, St Ives (includes the Isles of Scilly) and Berwick-upon-Tweed (including Lindisfame). Mr Seely explained the purpose of the APPG is “…to promote the needs of island communities within Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and in particular to support the economic and social wellbeing of island residents. Top of the agenda was a discussion on finding ways of making the case, as islands, for the provision of high-quality, accessible public services and affordable transport provision to and from these islands, plus the right infrastructure investment. This group will pool islands’ political resources to lobby government for a better deal for our communities. It means we have a much bigger voice at Westminster and it is part of my plan to go into battle for the Island to make sure government listens and does not overlook us.”

On 20 July 2017 a House of Lords debate took place on the transport needs of remote island communities. This briefing, prepared in advance of the debate, provides an overview of transport policies and schemes in England (particularly the Isle of Wight, Isles of Scilly, Holy Island/Lindisfame, Lundy and the Farne Islands) and other areas of the UK. For me, the debate itself provided three new insights. Firstly, the transport issues facing islanders (particularly the Isle of Scilly) in getting to and from the mainland (e.g. access, seasonality, cost, sole operators/monopolies, market failure and service improvement). Secondly, discussions around whether island communities are discriminated against by policy and decision makers because they are “offshore”; with frequent comparisons drawn to Scotland where examples were given to demonstrate the care taken to make sure all island communities are not prejudiced in their access to services and travel to the mainland (e.g. frequency of transport services, their cost and all-year round availability). Thirdly, calls on Government to not only invest in transport for island communities but also to ensure that islanders’ voices are heard – with Lord Bradshaw querying how “the Minister has to ask himself and his Government whether they really value the islands”. Other points were raised around funding/the Barnett Formula, rural deprivation and isolation and the need for rural proofing.

With renewed interest in UK islands, what studies, policies and practice already exists and how can this inform (future) Government thinking? I offer three points.

Firstly, how have academics thought about islands? ‘Island studies’ has emerged as part of attempts by academics to study islands ‘on their own terms’. This can be traced back to the establishment of the International Small Island Studies Association (ISISA) in 1992, and to the creation of the Island Studies Journal (ISJ) by the University of Prince Edward Island, Canada in 2003 – becoming the official journal of the ISISA in 2012 and part of RETI: The Network of Island Universities in 2013. These were all set up to encourage scholarly [and wider] discussion and debates on island matters including (but not limited to) ‘islandness’, smallness, insularity, dependency, resource management, the environment and community life. Back in 2015 the RETI annual conference and summer school were held at the University of the Highlands and Islands in Orkney. The conference included a dedicated session on “the northern isles” with contributions on Orkney as a gateway to northern Europe, the migration and employment decisions of islanders, Shetland’s cultural and natural heritage and the Orkney model of economic development.

Much academic work has concentrated on the spatial distribution and types of islands – continental versus oceanic, small versus those that are not small, tropical versus temperate, urbanised versus wild. Some studies have explored island life – drawing out differences between living, visiting and/or working on islands alongside the impact of globalisation. The transition made here is from seeing islands as ‘physical spaces’ to seeing islands as ‘living places’. This has been accompanied by a shift from an original focus on individual islands (pre 1980s) to the general study of islands and island communities (post 1980s). This has led to a series of debates around: (i) when does an island become an indistinguishable part of the mainland (e.g. Manhattan Island in New York); (ii) ownership and exploration rights – with the UK, Ireland, Denmark and Iceland all seeking at various points to claim interests on Rockall Bank; (iii) how communities based on islands are subject to particular island-related factors (the ‘island effect’) – with this study comparing the Isles of Scilly and the Isle of Wight; and the University of Aberdeen conducting research into how demographic processes shape social and economic change within different island communities in Scotland. More recently academics have sought to consider islands in the context of place – and their role as a vehicle for cost cutting, prevention and asset-based community development. While islands used to be perceived as isolated laboratories for academic study, today islands and islanders are seen to offer important insights into themes as diverse as sustainable development, innovation, local action (resilience) and livelihoods. How can we gather data and evidence about islands and island communities from across the UK to develop a UK research agenda on island communities? How can we ensure this helps us ‘make the case’ to Government for investing in islands?

Secondly, how have policy-makers thought about UK islands? The UK Government, Scottish Government, Welsh Government and Northern Ireland Assembly have, at various points, recognised the unique circumstances and potential of islands.

In England, this has most recently been seen through the formation of the new APPG, and through initiatives such as a £10 million transport package to improve sea links between Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly, upgrade roads on the islands and carry out port repairs; and a £250,000 grant to the Isle of Wight Council to develop a range of projects (e.g. locality hubs, co-location of public services) as part of Government’s One Public Estate (OPE) programme.

The Scottish Government’s commitment to island communities includes the publication of ‘empowering Scotland’s island communities’ by the Island Areas Ministerial Working Group and the appointment of an Island Minister (both in 2014). Since August 2016, Scotland has had an ‘Islands Strategic Group’, to consider issues affecting inhabited island communities and to ensure greater Council involvement in helping to find solutions. Also in August 2016, the UK Government and three Scottish Island Councils (Shetland, Orkney and the Western Isles) launched an Islands Framework – including a 10 point plan – for joint working. More recently, in June 2017, the Scottish Government introduced an Islands (Scotland) Bill. Measures contained in the Bill include a requirement to ‘island proof’ future legislating and policies, the creation of a National Islands Plan, greater flexibility around Councillor representation within island communities and extended powers to island councils regarding marine licencing. Islands Minister Humza Yousaf described how “…this government is committed to promoting islands’ voices, to harnessing islands’ resources and enhancing their well-being. The measures in this bill underpin this ambition. In particular, the provision to ‘island-proof’ decision-making across the public sector will ensure the interests of islanders are reflected in future legislation and policy from the very outset. The National Islands Plan will set out the strategic direction for supporting island communities, continuing the momentum generated by the Our Islands, Our Future campaign and the work of the islands strategic group. This is the first ever bill for Scotland’s islands, marking an historic milestone for our island communities.”

The Scottish Government already provides additional funding for local councils with island communities through uplift in their needs-based share of Grant Aided Expenditure (which takes into account characteristics such as remoteness, dispersed populations) and through a Special Islands Needs Allowance (SINA) which recognises the increased cost of delivering services to island communities.

The Scottish Government also takes a sub-national approach to economic development which benefits islands. Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE), which can be traced all the way back to the Highlands and Islands Development Board set up in 1965, is a Government agency leading regional growth and development activities across the highlands and islands. HIE works with a range of partners in areas such as economic development, housing, culture, education, transport and digital connectivity; aligning these activities to the Scottish Government’s Economic Strategy.

In Wales, the Isle of Anglesey Council and Welsh Government have started the Anglesey Energy Island™ Programme which aims to create a prosperous economy based around energy projects. In January 2017, Welsh and Irish Governments announced the CHERISH project (climate, heritage and environments of reefs, islands and headlands). With €4 million of EU funds, the project is supporting organisations in both countries to employ cutting-edge technology to analyse island archaeology and heritage sites which are most affected by climate change, coastal erosion and rising sea levels.

With renewed interest from politicians and policy-makers, particularly in England and Scotland, how can we ensure island communities, their needs and aspirations, are recognised in Government activity and legislation across the UK? For example: by island proofing, having a UK islands framework, a new funding formulae, linking to other policy agendas such as devolution and/or by integrating economic and social interventions rather than being silo based?

Thirdly, and finally, how and why are some island communities taking on more responsibility for services and activities and what can we learn from their practice? There are examples where communities have addressed issues (including gaps in services) in ways that generate economic, social and environmental benefits. For example, in June 1997 the Isle of Eigg Heritage Trust took ownership of the Isle of Eigg. After years of instability, neglect and lack of secure tenure, the Trust was able to purchase the island with Highland Council and the Scottish Wildlife Trust, raising some £1.5 million to do so. The Trust is a company limited by guarantee and registered Scottish charity. Since the community buyout a strategic plan has been developed, and a range of actions undertaken to make Eigg an attractive place to live, work and visit. Today the Trust has three subsidiary companies owning and managing An Laimhrig (the island’s shop, post office, tearoom, craft shop, Trust office and toilet/shower facilities), the island’s electricity grid (Eigg Electric), and renovating the Trust’s properties (Eigg Construction Ltd). Residents on Eigg, Muck, Rum and Canna have drawn on the Nuka model developed by Alaska’s indigenous people to develop a health and wellbeing centre and train four health and social care support workers based in the local communities to deliver health care to people in the Small Isles. Residents on the Isle of Wight, supported by the Council, launched a campaign ‘fight for the Wight’, a petition targeted at central Government to call for increased funding for the island.

These examples highlight the importance of local people being in the lead in finding creative solutions to address local issues; as well as recognising the importance of the support they often receive from Local Authorities, statutory bodies, charities, voluntary and community sector organisations and others. There are many more examples of island community involvement in renewable energy schemes (wind, marine), transport, infrastructure, tourism, enterprise and growth. How can we collect and share this practice – what can be transferred and scaled up to support other UK islanders devise their own projects and initiatives when faced with similar issues? What doesn’t work in an island context and why is this?

With the APPG for UK islands currently working with the House of Commons Library to scope out research and further work, and the Islands (Scotland) Bill making its way through parliament, new opportunities are emerging for island communities to have a bigger say in public policy, will this help us find new ways of making the case? Watch this space…

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Jessica is a researcher/project manager at Rose Regeneration; an economic development business working with communities, Government and business to help them achieve their full potential. Her current work includes supporting a Lottery programme to help people into paid work; research for the NHS on rural workforce recruitment and retention issues and supporting a community rail partnership. Jessica can be contacted by email jessica.sellick@roseregeneration.co.uk or telephone 01522 521211. Website: http://www.roseregeneration.co.uk/ Twitter: @RoseRegen

 

Market Towns – fit for the future?

One in five people in the UK live in or around small rural towns. But can they thrive? Jessick Sellick investigates.

SOME 11 million people live in or around the UK’s small rural towns – and they remain the most rapidly expanding settlements in England. Many of them are traditional market towns, others former industrial or coastal towns. They are important hubs of social interaction and cohesion, as well as providers of employment and local commerce. However, some market towns are under enormous strain and in order to thrive into the future, communities are being asked to come up with new ideas and solutions to keep these places vibrant and sustainable.

The term ‘market town’ can be traced back to the medieval period and was traditionally used to describe a settlement that had the right to host public markets at stated times. Although many still hold regular markets, whether described as a “market town” or as having “market rights”, their role has changed significantly, with many now functioning as visitor centres, employment bases or commuter settlements. Market towns occupy a distinctive category in the geographic structure of England – their notable geographical features often relate to being surrounded by farmland, having a market place where roads meet in the town centre and/or acting as a bridging point over rivers.

On the one hand, market towns all-too-often become lost and conflated within the categorisations ‘urban’ or ‘rural’; yet they are inextricably connected to both rural places (supporting a number of services and amenities and often having a broader economic base) and urban areas (through a web of economic, social and environmental flows). Yet these morphologically distinctive, stand alone settlements face ever greater pressures and challenges at this rural-urban crossroads. How, then, can market towns flourish? I offer three points.

Firstly, from wanting to look at beautiful countryside to escaping from the city, there is a premium attached to living in a market town. A survey by Lloyds TSB which tracked house price movements in 113 market towns in England according to data supplied by the Land Registry found homebuyers typically spend £23,000 more to live in a market town in England. House prices in market towns across England were found to be, on average, 11% higher than their county average, while the average house price itself (£235,719) was found to be more than six times average gross annual earnings.

This premium has risen from £11,691 in 2002. Although two-thirds of market towns have higher house prices than their neighbouring settlements – as many people continue to want to live in market towns – some are faring better than others. For example, 9 of the 10 most expensive market towns are in southern England. Beaconsfield is the most expensive market town (with an average house price of £810,704), followed by Winchcombe in Gloucestershire (£405,590) and Tenterden in Kent (£377,293).

Yet Ferryhill in County Durham is the least expensive market town in England with an average house price of just £75,011 (Ferryhill is also the only town in the survey with an average house price below £100,000) – with the fortunes of this former mining settlement resonating in Peter Crookston ‘The Pitmen’s Requiem’, which tells the story of the brass band tune Gresford and the society which produced it.

Moreover, the survey illuminates how market towns are not a homogenous category – their populations vary (from 11,600 in Ferryhill to more than 30,000 in Hitchin) but they serve more than one-fifth of the nation’s population. Furthermore, the number and types of services that they offer and how they are influenced by their surrounding territory and different economic structures and circumstances also varies. As well as being viewed as dozy, quaint or affluent places where people want to live –compared to a box of chocolates or picture postcard – market towns are also under strain.

Secondly, some market towns are full of holes (quite literally), as they continue to grapple with retail competition from larger towns and out of town developments; lose employment, public services and private sector investment; and face infrequent public transport. Alongside these issues, market towns have climbed the policy agenda. Under the strap line of putting “the high back in street”, Mary Portas led the Portas Review which set out a new vision to ‘breathe economic and community life back into our high streets’. The resultant 27 ‘Portas Pilots’ ranging from Liskeard in Cornwall to Berwick-upon-Tweed in Northumberland, in which each town and its respective ‘town team’ is given £100,000 of public funding to revive their area and test out new ideas.

Whilst a pot of £100,000 may not go far beyond supporting markets in town squares or pop-up shops it could be that the Portas Pilots generate interest and positivity in areas in decline and make town centres bustle again. As well as the pilots, the Government is supporting a range of measures – from a Future High Street X-Fund (with funding to be awarded from March 2013), to focusing retail development in town centres through a ‘town centre first’ in planning policy, and supporting a national enterprise campaign ‘Start Up Britain‘; all of these initiatives are seeking to get empty spaces used. With the second wave of City Deals announced by the Government in October 2012, which sees powers being devolved to deliver growth locally; the Communities Secretary Eric Pickles recently confirmed that devolution packages should be extended to rural areas, starting with market towns.

But what often emerges is a lack of a strategic approach from policy and decision makers in tackling the specific challenges and issues facing market towns. Whereas previously market towns formed part of the Countryside Agency’s Beacon Towns Initiative and (now defunct) Regional Development Agencies economic strategies; today the policy approach is more piecemeal. Because market towns exhibit different characteristics and respond to different dynamics, incorporating them into a ‘one size fits all’ approach will not work.

In some instances, typologies of market towns have been developed so that the role and contribution of these settlements to economic development can be assessed (see, for example, a report on secondary centres prepared by the University of Lincoln or a typology of smaller rural towns produced by the Rural Evidence Research Centre).

Thirdly, how, then, do we address some of the problems experienced by market towns to make them viable and sustainable? Action for Market Towns (a UK organisation that promotes the vitality and viability of small towns) provides information and advice and examples of best practice to support these settlements. Through the ‘small towns for tomorrow’ policy forum, AMT wants to address the lack of an agreed method for statistically separating market towns from other urban areas to ensure that trends in market towns are captured their special needs are not overlooked by policy and decision-makers.

More recently, and in response to the Portas Review, the think tank Urban Pollinators suggests three steps in the right direction: (1) to re-circulate money in the local economy (e.g. the Brixton Pound), (2) to make space for enterprise including locally run cooperatives, and (3) to re-design places to encourage sustainable living (e.g. Incredible Edible Todmorden).

To explore the issues raised here further, the Rural Services Network is holding an event on market towns on 24 January 2013 at The Town Hall in Retford. The event will include presentations from Professor John Shepherd (Rural Evidence Research Centre) on the growth and geographical distribution of Community Interest Companies, Liz Price (University of Lincoln), Matt Corrigan (Lincoln BIG) and a walking tour. For more information and to book your place at this free event please contact Wendy Cooper by email wendy.cooper@sparse.gov.uk or telephone 01822 813693.

Jessica is a rural practitioner at Rose Regeneration which has particular empathy and enthusiasm for rural and coastal issues. Work currently being undertaken includes: supporting a Rural Growth Network pilot area, researching farmer networks (for the Royal Agricultural Society of England), developing and testing a Rural Economy Planning Toolkit and an evaluation of cultural led regeneration in seaside towns. Rose Regeneration previously supported Pennine Prospects with its application for the South Pennines to become a Local Nature Partnership (which received Government approval) and has completed Local Level Rural Proofing resources for Defra. Jessica can be contacted by email jessica.sellick@roseregeneration.co.uk or telephone 01522 521211. Website: http://www.roseregeneration.co.uk