The 2019 Knight Frank Rural Sentiment Survey Results

This year’s survey was never supposed to be about Brexit. At the time respondents were answering the questions, we should have just embarked on our voyage of discovery outside the EU instead of facing yet more months of uncertainty.

So my apologies for inflicting more Brexit on you, but it seemed important to quantify just what impact all the uncertainty is really having on rural businesses. The answer, for a majority, is not much. Six out of ten respondents said that the farrago had been an annoying aggravation, but had not had an economic impact.

However, a significant minority – almost 30% – said their businesses had suffered financially in some shape or form, whether that was through lost business, putting plans on hold or spending time and money preparing for a nodeal Brexit. One respondent lamented: 

But just as in the original referendum, our respondents were fairly evenly split on how they wanted the mess sorted out. The top two choices were a second referendum with a vote to remain (25%) and, just squeaking into the lead with 26%, a no-deal “hard” Brexit.

Much of the blame for the inability to strike a deal seems to be laid at the door of Brussels. This is reflected in the responses when we asked if people would vote differently if they had a second chance. While 84% haven’t changed their minds, of those that had, almost 80% said they would now vote leave instead of remain, a slightly higher proportion than when we asked the same question last year.

One of the themes running through the survey was a broad polarisation of respondents. For example, there was a fairly even split between those planning to change their businesses to cope with the challenges and opportunities of Brexit and those maintaining the status quo. Of those planning to make changes, some kind of diversification was the most popular option, followed by putting more and into environmental schemes.

When we asked whether people were more or less optimistic about the prospects for their businesses than this time last year there was an even split between those feeling more optimistic (25%) and those that were less upbeat (26%). Interestingly, that still means almost half of those taking the survey haven’t changed their outlook.

Something else that hadn’t changed according to the results of this year’s survey were the issues affecting the ability of our respondents to manage their businesses as efficiently as possible. Once again, restrictive planning polices, poor broadband or mobile connectivity, commodity prices and succession planning all featured in the top five gripes.

While government can do little about commodity prices or succession, its inability to deliver decent connectivity to many rural businesses is winning it few friends, especially as over half of respondents taking the survey said they were already using social media to promote their businesses. 

The one question we didn’t ask was whether those taking the survey were confident that the Brexit process would eventually be concluded within the next 12 months. Let’s hope so. In the words of one of our respondents: “Brexit is a massive distraction, there are so many other issues we need to get a grip on.”

Read the report in full here

For more information please contact Andrew Shirley