Lessons from Reviving Small Town America

The Christmas and New Year edition of The Economist had a fascinating article about attempts to revive small town America.

The problem is perfectly summarized in this paragraph:

Most small towns are still struggling, as a tour of boarded-up Main Streets and closed John Deere dealerships in the rural heartland will show. “Outmigration” has drained their populations over the past century. Agri-businesses have replaced small farms, and shopping malls an hour away (not to mention Wal-Mart and the internet) have undercut local shops. In many small towns only old people are for the most part left, as there is little to attract the young. Just 17% of America's population today lives outside metropolitan areas. Some surviving small towns have simply become bedroom communities for large cities, and have lost their character.

Thank goodness we don't face that kind of problem as yet and probably never will to the same extent. However, the movement of younger people in to our larger towns, forced there not least by the cost of housing (a subject I'll come back to in a separate post later), is having the knock on effect of removing new businesses and entrepreneurialism from our smaller towns and villages.

The really interesting part of the Economist article was here:

Some organisations are trying to help small towns along. One of the most important is the National Trust Main Street Centre, which aims to revitalise central streets by preserving historic buildings. Volunteers staff its local branches; most states have them. Funding is local, but the national organisation provides training and know-how.

One of the biggest challenges, according to Doug Loescher, the centre's director, is that many towns have been trying for years to revive themselves, with little success. “There's usually a lot of scepticism that another approach can really make a difference,” he says. Local officials also have to realise that downtowns have changed for ever. Clothing and hardware stores will never return to the town centre. Rather, says Mr Loescher, restaurants and bars, government offices and even private houses should be given a place near Main Street.

State aid for small entrepreneurs also helps. Montana, which has a notably populist governor, has been pushing especially hard. In its last legislative session, the state legislature made even the tiniest of businesses eligible for aid. But Chuck Hassebrook, executive director of the Centre for Rural Affairs in Nebraska, says it is expensive to provide small business development services in rural America, even if there is a good return on investment. Rather appealingly, he proposes that the federal government shave 5% off its enormous farm-subsidy programme—which goes mostly to mega-farms—and give it to small businesses. “You could quadruple what the federal government spends on entrepreneurial rural development,” he says.

You can read the full story here.

I think there are lessons in that statement for the UK, for farm subsidy payments read the Common Agricultural Policy. Funding for start up and small business in rural areas would bring dynamism and life back in to our rural and suburban economy. There are very many people doing great things in business in Dorset. Just think how much more they could do, how many more people they could employ, how much more money they could inject in to our local economy if they were given a little more help.

I think that's a goal worth fighting for, I'm committed to doing that.