Do city region policies neglect rural areas?

A city region established around a smaller city typically has a higher percentage of its region being rural relative to city regions based around larger cities. Appreciation of this observation leads to the realisation that much of the existing literature focuses on city regions based around larger cities with small rural hinterlands. This paper develops a conceptual model outlining linkages within and beyond city regions and identifies that not all city regions embrace their rural hinterlands. To operationalise this conceptual model we draw on UK city region data collated from policy documents and socioeconomic performance indicators to analyse the long-term vision of development policies, evaluate how policymakers integrate rural areas in policy, and assess whether the introduction of city regions represents a change in policy focus and/or a change in the effectiveness of policies affecting rural hinterlands. The advantage of the conceptual model is that it is generalisable across any spatial entity and across an evolving urban-rural development landscape. Our analysis of policy documents and socioeconomic data for three UK city regions with large rural hinterlands (Aberdeen, North of Tyne, and Swansea Bay) reveals the marginalisation and peripheralisation of rural areas due to the direction of city region policies and the socioeconomic flows of resources towards their urban cores. The city region approach to development tends not to be cognizant of the potential of rural areas and our findings suggest the need for development strategies that ensure rural areas are not marginalised because disconnected rural areas experience aggravated core-periphery divisions.