The East Midlands can help boost the UK's rural economy Prime Minister told

The East Midlands has been challenged to help the UKs rural communities add up to a further £347bn to the national economy in a report handed to the Prime Minister today.

Dr Stuart Burgess, the governments Rural Advocate and Chairman of the Commission for Rural Communities, praised the countys entrepreneurial culture and its economic diversity, whilst underlining a host of recommendations for unlocking the potential of Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Northamptonshire and Nottinghamshire.

Speaking about his paper, which was designed to investigate ways of strengthening rural economies in the wake of flooding and foot and mouth, Dr Burgess said:

In my visits to rural areas I am constantly reminded how enterprising people are and the diversity of successful firms and resilient communities we have.

My report records their economic strengths and the substantial contribution they already make to the nations economic performance, with over 30% of Englands businesses based in rural areas.

He went on to add: These firms generate £325bn for the economy, yet when you compare this with the output of the same amount of companies in urban areas, you realise there is a lot of potential yet to be realised.

This unfulfilled potential could be anywhere between £236 and £347 billion per annum and we need to make sure better support is provided to bridge this gap.

Dr Burgess believes economic contributions could be more than doubled by lifting the performance of medium and larger firms, by attracting more investment and by strengthening the capacity to innovate.

This, in turn, will help reduce worklessness and poverty in rural areas, close the persistent gap between rural and urban wages and make more communities resilient against future economic and environmental shocks.

My report sets out a package of practical proposals for coordinating government activity including:

the creation of a Rural Finance Forum to examine and overcome the causes of lower capital investment, poorer access to finance, and lower funding for rural economic initiatives

the creation of a Rural Innovation Initiative to address the special challenges and opportunities in sparse or remote rural areas

development of new forms of brokerage, networks and clusters to improve access to employee and business support programmes and share good practice; and

a new compact between government, insurance and rural industries to improve response to shocks caused by disease and bad weather and develop new insurance products.

At the heart of any drive for improvements will be better understanding of the scale and performance of rural economies from business and city leaders, economic departments and agencies.

This is why I have also recommended that the government convenes a national summit and sponsors a series of regional summits to focus attention and activity towards releasing the potential of rural economies.

I now look forward to government nationally, regionally and locally being inspired to seize this compelling opportunity and focus coordinated efforts on the needs of rural entrepreneurs, businesses, employees and residents, not just for the benefit of rural England, but the entire nation.

Other findings noted a boom in home-working, healthy rates of new business start-ups, high levels of entrepreneurship (where levels among women are much higher than the national average) and the growth of small firms in new business areas.