Today Selaine Saxby, MP for North Devon, hosted the Association of Convenience Stores (ACS) in Parliament as they launched their new Rural Shop Report. Lord Benyon, Minister for Rural Affairs, joined the launch to praise the report and the role that convenience stores play in rural communities.
The 2023 Rural Shop Report highlights the crucial contribution that the UK’s 17,720 rural shops make to their communities and the need for targeted support from Government to ensure their long term future.
Launched today the report demonstrates the close links that rural retailers have with their communities, their importance as local employers, and the impact that store closures would have on the provision of groceries in rural and otherwise isolated areas.
Key findings from the 2023 Rural Shop Report include:
- Rural shops provide local, flexible and secure jobs to 142,000 people, with more than half of rural colleagues walking to work
- More than one in four rural shops provide a local grocery delivery service to customers
- More than three in four rural shops (77%) have engaged in some form of community activity over the last year
- In the last year, rural shops have made investments worth over £214m to secure the future of their businesses
As part of the launch Selaine Saxby supported the ACS’s calls for more support for rural areas as part of the Government’s ongoing levelling up agenda, supporting investment in digital infrastructure to provide rural shops with reliable broadband and mobile coverage, and enabling rural shops to maintain a viable network of free to use cash machines.
Selaine Saxby, MP for North Devon, said:
“I was delighted to host the Association of Convenience Stores as they launched this year’s Rural Shop Report. Our local shops were a crucial lifeline to many rural communities during the pandemic and kept people feeling safe and secure.
“The report shows that rural residents value their local shop as highly as a post office and a pharmacy, and we must keep as many of these open as possible. Local shops aren’t just a convenient place to buy milk but reduce our reliance on our cars and provide a range of services not otherwise available in our rural villages.
“I join the ACS in their calls for more support for rural areas as part of the Government’s ongoing levelling up agenda, supporting investment in digital infrastructure to provide rural shops with reliable broadband and mobile coverage, and enabling rural shops to maintain a viable network of free to use cash machines.”
John Lowman, Chief Executive of ACS, said:
“Rural shops face unique challenges compared to their more urban counterparts, with many not able to gain access to a secure and reliable broadband or mobile connection, and supply chain issues that make it more difficult to get a regular supply of products without paying excessive delivery charges. We’re calling on all MPs in rural areas to support their local shops at this incredibly challenging time for the whole rural convenience sector, as the loss of any rural shop would have a huge impact on the community that it serves.
“The Government has failed in its attempt to come up with a solution to help rural businesses that need urgent support on energy costs, instead opting for a scattergun approach that won’t make a dent in the bills of thousands of shops facing huge hikes in the energy bills this year. Without urgent intervention to allow businesses to renegotiate fairer contracts, local shops will be forced to close their doors in numbers.”
Lord Benyon, Minister for Rural Affairs, said:
“Local stores are an extraordinary resource in communities, some of which are extremely remote, and some of which are utterly dependant on them. They provide a community with essential goods and service, and the essence of what makes a community. They are part of the social glue that makes a community alongside the church, the pub, and voluntary organisations.
“In the pandemic we saw the vital necessity of those shops. They provided so much more than goods and services, they were someone to speak to and a real support that was incalculable.
“The Rural Shop Report will be looked at very closely to make sure that we are looking at means to keep these shops viable and operational”
