Urban–Rural Differences in Commuting in England: A Challenge to the Rural Sustainability Agenda?

Abstract

While housing affordability and homelessness worsen in rural England, sustainability concerns are being used to reinforce the 60-year-old goal of urban containment. Yet there are claims that the evidence for rural communities being intrinsically unsustainable in terms of their carbon emissions remains weak. This paper aims to improve the evidence base through a focus on commuting behaviour. Following a review of recent studies of commuting that have included a rural dimension, it presents the results of new census-based analyses of differences between places in the distance that residents travel to work. Both indicate that a more nuanced approach is needed towards new development than a simple urban–rural dichotomy.

Acknowledgements

The support of the Office for National Statistics, the Centre for Census and Survey Research and the Economic and Social Research Council/Joint Information Systems Committee Census of Population Programme in helping to provide access to the 2001 Census Individual CAMS is gratefully acknowledged. Census output is Crown copyright and is reproduced by permission of the Controller of Her Majesty's Stationery Office and the Queen's Printer for Scotland. The author alone is responsible for the interpretation of the data.