Report: Cross Party Group on Poverty inquiry into rural poverty

The Cross Party Group on Poverty in the Scottish Parliament is a forum for exploring the drivers of and solutions to poverty in Scotland. It acts to connect MSPs with organisations working to tackle poverty, as well as with people living on low incomes across Scotland, in order to better inform anti-poverty policymaking and contribute to the ending of poverty in Scotland. The Poverty Alliance gives the Group secretarial support.

In 2023, the CPG on Poverty launched an inquiry into people’s experience of poverty in rural Scotland. The inquiry set out to learn about the reality of living in poverty in rural Scotland by exploring a number of key questions:
• Do current measures of poverty accurately capture poverty in rural Scotland? How can we improve measurement?
• What are the causes of poverty in rural Scotland?
• How does the poverty premium function in rural areas?
• What are the challenges for tackling poverty in rural Scotland?
• What are examples of good policy and/or practice in relation to addressing the specific dimensions of rural poverty?

These questions were explored in four evidence sessions which featured experts from across civil society, submissions of pre-written evidence from the CPG’s membership, and a lived experience discussion which brought together people with experience of living on a low income in rural Scotland, MSPs and the Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice.

The report reflects what was heard in these spaces, providing an overview of key issues relating to poverty in rural Scotland, as well as policy areas which require further attention to address this. It is an exploratory piece of work, intended to provide further insight into the experiences of rural poverty and – alongside recommendations – it presents discussion questions to form the basis of further policy-making and service design.

You can read the report in the window below, or click here to download it.