Post-pandemic working in rural Wiltshire project

Project details

Full project title: Post-pandemic working in rural Wiltshire: Building resilience and recovery

Duration: July 2023-July 2024

Funder: Research, Business and Innovation Seed Funding (Vice-Chancellor's Challenge Fund), UWE Bristol

Project Leaders for SPE:

• Dr Katie McClymont
• Cat Loveday

Other UWE Bristol researchers:

• Professor Carol Jarvis
• Professor Hugo Gaggiotti
• Dr Selen Kars
• Dr Kay Galpin

Research partner/collaborator: Wiltshire Council

Project summary

Working in partnership with Wiltshire County Council, this project aimed to contribute to understanding and improving the performance of rural enterprise in Wiltshire with an emphasis on building resilient communities and exploring post‐pandemic patterns of working and enterprise.

Key objectives were to explore the impact of Brexit and COVID‐19 on patterns of working and enterprise, their implications, challenges and opportunities for rural enterprise and to co‐create strategies and approaches that offer a sustainable way to address these challenges and opportunities and that empower others beyond the duration of the project.

The literature outlines a number of themes regarding the definition and articulation of the nature of ‘rural’ and the tensions between productiveness and protection. Two salient points were the recognition of the diversity of enterprises as well as the importance of recognising new and dynamic relationships between rural areas and urban connections.

Key outputs

• Conference presentations in September and November 2024.

Key findings

Findings from 152 survey respondents 15 Interviews and 2 focussed discussion groups identified core challenges around physical infrastructure, human resources and community communications for rural business owners, specifically:

• limited business involvement in local planning processes
• ongoing impacts around human resources linked to hybrid working, wellbeing and recruitment and training which have been impacted by both Brexit and the COVID pandemic.
• navigating the growth versus preservation of the rural context
• ways of working with the local authority and other agents to build a collaborative ecosystem.

From a planning perspective, there were clear messages about the need for better strategic guidance from a regional and national level, around understanding and planning for the needs of rural enterprise.

This includes land use, energy infrastructure and wi-fi as well as how these needs interact with plans for housing and their associated infrastructure. Enterprise Hubs are important assets - the development of which should include considering social as well as economic development as well as a clear sense of place for each hub location in its identity.

Project contact

For further information on the project, please contact Dr Kay Galpin (kay.galpin@uwe.ac.uk).