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Rural Communities (Recession)

My hon. Friend makes a very interesting point about what was omitted from the speech made by the hon. Member for Arundel and South Downs from the Front Bench. I also noted that some of the Conservative commitments contained heavy qualifications about whether they would be affordable, were the Opposition ever to form a Government. Our analysis of a range of indicators associated with downturn risks, resilience and potential for recovery—that is still at an early stage—indicates that rural areas are faring well when compared with urban areas. That is not to say that there are not challenges, especially in relation to falling vacancies, earnings, house prices and negative equity, but rural areas score well against recovery indicators: they have good employment opportunities, good enterprise and business prospects, high skills and good quality of life.