Action is being taken to boost the economy in Craven as a Countryside Agency report reveals that rural living is getting tougher.

Craven District Council has already won up to £6 million from the European Union to spend on developing schemes to improve the local economy and training opportunities.

Later this summer the Council is to launch a consultation exercise in which it hopes to identify areas where money can be spent on stimulating employment, improving services and providing more training.

The Countryside Agency report reveals that falling farm incomes, hidden unemployment, increasing homelessness and the lowest weekly wages in England are some of the symptoms of living in rural areas like North Yorkshire and the Craven district.

Agency chairman Ewan Cameron said: "Behind the rosy image of the rural idyll lie some very real problems of isolation, a declining environment, pressurised and declining services and a vulnerable economy."

Craven's economic chief, Mick Cartledge, said the EC cash was available not just to create jobs but to create the right environment to encourage the development of jobs. Services needed to be improved as did training.

"We need to improve the skills of people living in the rural areas to give them better chances to compete for work," he added.

Consultation would start in June and the aim was to develop a community investment prospectus, which would identify areas where schemes could be set up.

Mary Russell, of Skipton-based Craven Housing Scheme, which is partly funded by the Countryside Agency, said the main problems facing people in the district were higher-than-average rents and lower-than-average wages and transport costs. Homelessness was also an issue - last year 66 people were registered as homeless with the service.

"It is not as visible in Craven as in urban areas but people in the countryside are just as likely to sleep rough but are more likely to use barns, outbuildings and church yards," she said.

Chief Executive, Moira Constable, said: "In the absence of affordable housing, local people are leaving their villages and the demise of the rural services follows.

"The Government talks about sustainable communities, but if nothing is done soon to keep local people in rural areas, there will be nothing to sustain."

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