Public ‘unaware of countryside’s £80bn value to British economy’

Research from the Prince’s Countryside Fund run by the Prince of Wales has revealed that the British love the countryside, yet are unaware of the £80bn contribution it makes to country’s finances each year.

Published to coincide with this week’s first ever National Countryside Week – when the Great Yorkshire Show is also taking place – it found that 93 per cent of Britons value the countryside for relaxation, fresh air and peace.

A further 94 per cent of people overwhelmingly agreed that it is important to protect the countryside.

However at the same time the public is shown to seriously underestimate the countryside in terms of its financial value, nearly four out of five people estimating it to contribute just £1bn to the national economy.

When questioned about what percentage of the UK’s total area is agricultural land, 60 per cent thought it was less than half, when it reality it makes up more than three quarters. People were also stumped when asked to estimate the average salary of a farmer, said by the Government to be £15,000, and how many miles of hedgerows and drystone walls there are in the UK.

Launched in July last year, the Prince’s Countryside Fund is a unique collaboration of brands and businesses committed to caring for the people who take care of the countryside.

To date, the companies involved in the fund have contributed over £1m and already nearly £500,000 has been given in grants to 13 projects throughout the countryside, including an apprenticeship scheme to train young people to become hill farmers in the Yorkshire Dales.

In its first year the fund has helped an estimated 1,000 beneficiaries.

During National Countryside Week, the next round of grants will be announced at the Great Yorkshire Show, where £250,000 will be given to more projects across the country.

There will also be a range of promotions with the founding companies and the results of the photography competition to find the photo that best captures the Great British countryside.

The Prince of Wales will also be undertaking a range of rural visits across the country, including to the Great Yorkshire Show this Wednesday.

Prince Charles said: “I am delighted to introduce the very first National Countryside Week, which happily coincides with the first anniversary of my Countryside Fund.

“I hope that it will provide us all with an opportunity to celebrate the people who make our countryside the very precious national asset that it undoubtedly is.”

The chief executive of supermarket chain Waitrose, Mark Price, trustee of the fund, said: “We hope to inspire the general public to recognise the importance of the countryside to the nation’s well being and the wider British economy; and to take time to appreciate it and the people who care for it. All the companies that have partnered with the Fund have a special connection to the British countryside through the products and services they make or sell.”

Nearly nine out of 10 people underestimated the value of rural tourism to the UK, worth £14bn while three quarters of people did not know that agriculture employed more than half a million people in the UK.

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