The issues facing rural people are well-documented: physical and social exclusion, the decline of rural services resulting from an increase in commuting, lack of affordable housing and an ageing population are all challenges that rural communities face. But a new lottery project called Village SOS is proving that social enterprise really does hold the answer to many of these issues.
It's a common story, and one many of us in rural areas are familiar with. The struggling local pub is forced to close its doors, closely followed by the village shop and Post Office. Those residents with cars are forced to travel miles just to get bread and milk, while those without are left to rely on intermittent and unreliable public transport.
With the cost of delivering services often being higher in rural areas due to greater distances and a more dispersed population, it's often the most vulnerable members of rural communities who are left stranded, going days or weeks without seeing or talking to anyone as both private services, such as shops and pubs, and public services, such as transport and healthcare, close down or are withdrawn.
But the tide is turning, and it's due in part to social enterprise. Over the past 20 years or so, the number of community-owned enterprises has been steadily rising, and today there are 268 community-owned shops across the UK, helping to save around 5% of the 400 or so village shops that closed in 2010 alone. The latest of these is Tibberton in Shropshire, opened on 10 December thanks to the massive effort of villagers who realised the only way to bring back much-needed retail services – lost to them in November of last year – was to do it themselves. Forming a committee, they issued shares and managed to raise £12,000 through shares and donations, which, along with other loans and grants, was enough to reopen the shop. In a similar position are the villagers of Semley, who are currently asking for people to buy shares or make donations to help them secure a better future for their village and reopen their shop as a co-operative.
The fantastic thing about community enterprise is that it often thrives where commercial ventures fail. Taking the example of community-owned shops, only 10 of the 278 to ever open have closed, giving them a 97% success rate. Compare that with the 47% five-year survival rate of small businesses and you begin to appreciate their worth. But there's no secret to it – it's the community engagement that ensures they are successful. Because they are owned and run by the customers themselves, they listen to what they want, and respond accordingly. And because the customers are the owners, they really care about what happens to the business and want to support it. And we're seeing this right across the board, from shops and pubs to transport services, broadband provision, energy services and much, much more.
At Plunkett Foundation, we're proud to be a part of the Big Lottery Fund's Village SOS campaign, an initiative designed to help more communities across the UK access the help and support they need to reverse decline in their areas. Since the launch of this campaign at the end of August we've seen more than 750 unique callers to our advice line and almost 3,000 people register for help on the website – a clear indication that this support is much-needed.
We've also been taking the support directly to communities in their own areas in the form of a roadshow which has already visited each region once, and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, and will revisit them all again in the spring. The finale of this roadshow will take place on 16 December in London, aiming to be within easy public transport reach for London's satellite villages and bringing together the leaders in social enterprise and rural development – our partners Co-operatives UK, Locality, Action with Communities in Rural England and the day will be chaired by Big Lottery Fund's chief executive, Peter Wanless. It will also see inspirational examples and expert speakers such as Chris Funnell, from Co-operative Assistance Network, and Anne Perkins, committee member of Semley Shop and Guardian writer, who will talk about her community's journey and the work still to be done.
The feedback from our events so far has been overwhelmingly positive, and we've been fortunate enough to reach out to communities doing some truly amazing things. But our work is not done; as our founder, Sir Horace Plunkett, said: "The work of tomorrow will largely consist of the impossible today." But, he adds: "If this adds to the difficulty, it also adds to the fun."
Peter Couchman is chief executive of the Plunkett Foundation, a charity that supports communities in rural areas to take control of the issues affecting them through community ownership. Plunkett Foundation is the lead partner in the Big Lottery Fund's Village SOS initiative, designed to reverse the trend of rural decline through enterprise.
Village SOS Live in London. Friday 16th December. Cavendish Conference Centre, London.
This content is brought to you by Guardian Professional. To join the social enterprise network, click here.
