Take part in survey on digital potential

Are you a business owner in rural Scotland? Complete this survey on rural Britain’s digital potential.

SRUC (Scotland’s Rural College) is working with Rural England on a new project which is seeking to find ways to help ‘unlock’ the digital potential of rural Britain. As part of the project, a consultation has been launched aimed at rural business owners across the UK.

The project is seeking to maximise the potential of the internet and technology to boost the digital economy of rural areas, and has been commissioned by Amazon. Rural business owners with businesses of all sizes, ages, structures and sectors from across the country can respond to the consultation.

Responses will be analysed alongside official statistics, interviews with key rural and digital stakeholder groups, and economic analysis.

The project aims to understand:

• How to grow the digital economy in rural areas through e-commerce, exports and productivity gains
• The level of digital skills and capabilities in rural areas and how to further improve them
• What digital business tools and services best support rural businesses
• What enables businesses to successfully relocate from urban to rural areas
• The business sectors emerging in rural areas likely to gain most from digital technology
• The best rural locations to set up a digitally-empowered business

Recent research from the SME Growth Tracker, a quarterly report by Capital Economics commissioned by Amazon UK and Enterprise Nation, suggests that there is significant potential for the rural economy by going digital in terms of business and employment growth and this project will help to understand the best ways that this can be achieved.

Rural businesses can submit their views to the consultation on the Rural England website until the beginning of September. The project report will be published by the end of this year.

For more information on the project, please contact Jane Atterton in the first instance.