Planning authorities have traditionally relied on the assumption that development in the countryside is inherently unsustainable and this has underpinned UK rural planning policies for decades.

One of the core concerns surrounds the reduced levels of public transport in rural areas and consequent dependence on car ownership. However significant trends in travel and home working are challenging these assumptions.

Planning Authorities frequently only allow the development of new housing in the countryside if the proposed location is accessible by public transport, but such a measure is fundamentally flawed.

A growing number of employees now work from home, either full or part time, and this 'agile working' trend has the potential to reduce commuting. Those working from home now account for 13.7 per cent of the UK workforce, according to the HR Director (HRD), and a higher percentage of rural residents work from home than their urban counterparts. Indeed the Scottish Government’s Rural Scotland Key Facts 2018 states that 22 per cent work from home in remote rural areas, 17 per cent in accessible rural areas and 10 per cent in the rest of Scotland.

This working-from-home trend will be boosted by the outcomes of the UK Government’s Future Telecoms Infrastructure Review, which outlines plans to prioritise hard-to-reach rural areas for roll-out of full fibre connectivity, including the 'additional' £200+ million to help full fibre broadband ISP networks reach rural areas announced in the autumn budget last year. 

The Scottish Government is prioritising the provision of superfast broadband in rural areas through its R100 programme and it has invested £25 million to extend 4G coverage into longstanding mobile ‘not spots’.

These developments will support the growing trend of working from home and the growth of business activity in rural parts of Scotland, reducing the need to travel for work.

Housing in rural areas often provides homes for people who are employed locally and are therefore not commuting significant distances. Such housing continues to be essential, or people will be travelling further.

In addition, dependence on car transport, when used as a negative sustainability indicator does not take account of changes in car-related activity and the rapidly increasing use of electric and hybrid vehicles.  

According to recent research by McKinsey & Company, shared-mobility (principally car sharing) is on the rise and car ownership is reducing, with a growing number only hiring a car when needed. 

Meanwhile key UK policies such as the Scottish Government’s commitment to ban petrol and diesel-only cars by 2032 and Westminster’s commitment to do the same eight years later will speed up the electric car revolution. The 2018 Bloomberg report, Electric Vehicle Outlook, states that by 2040, 55 per cent of all new car sales and 33 per cnet of the global fleet will be electric.

So will the traditional planning attitude that housing in the countryside is fundamentally unsustainable, largely because of car usage, have to be updated to encompass these new opportunities?

We certainly think that a new look at how to plan sustainably for rural areas is long overdue.  

Further information

Contact Rural Planning