Future Society in 2024: 21st Century 'Good Life' - Rural Economy ...

Consumer affluence – in another 50 years, with average real incomes rising at 2.5% per annum
(making no assumptions with respect to distribution, which in the last 50 years has shown no
consistent trend), it will be reasonable for the average UK citizen to own not only multiple cars but
also multiple homes. Pro-active social policy - government remains committed to tackling social
exclusion and employment remains at or near full-employment level.
10.3 A day in the life of… Irene Jones
Our sample character from the ‘vibrant variety’ countryside is Irene, a woman aged 55 with two
children aged 9 and 15. Her current boyfriend – there have been a few - works 3.4 days in
Birmingham and visits, occasionally.
Irene lives in low-impact housing on plot land – it is one of the latest prefab bungalow-cottages that
the Jinbei Housing Corporation have designed, with customised white panel boarding and stilts to
raise the structure above the land to prevent against flood damage. She has another flat in a murpie
(Mid-life Urban-Rural Professional) apartment complex in Birmingham, near the business park where
many corporations are based.
Irene’s 95 year old mother Anita lives next door in another prefab bungalow – this design has
become very popular among the more elderly and infirm population. Dorothy however is in fighting
shape, and is enjoying her long retirement by engaging in sports and painting classes.
In Irene’s spare time she enjoys riding, city breaks, and eating out, and organises an annual arts
festival in a village in Cornwall, where enthusiasts from around the globe get together for a summer
weekend to meet personally and watch performances.
10.4 Public response
Respondents saw this scenario as being very much a continuation of ‘Rise of the Rurbs’. It appealed
more to the ‘transient rural’/’dynamic commuter’ respondents around Ashford than to the ‘deep rural’
respondents around Alnwick.
10.5 Plenary response
10.5.1 Community/public response to living in the scenario
This scenario is driven market-led policies and a focus on leisure and retirement, rather than
production. As a result there is great entrepreneurship and imagination in the ways that services are
developed. The public would be offered services by a range of new ‘hybrid’ brands: “National Trust
Sunsets”: “RSPB Wilderness”; “Tesco Leisure”.
There may be some conflict between groups over land use and land management. Countryside users
would come together to form interest groups and coalesce around slogans “Global mountain bikers
rule OK!”
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