Rural Britain is increasingly becoming a "food desert" for lower-income families, as the closure of local shops and poor public transport leave households struggling to access healthy and affordable food, new research from the University of Sheffield has revealed.
Key Findings on Rural Food Access
The study estimates that over half of rural households with an annual income under £40,000 find it difficult to obtain affordable and nutritious food, including fresh fruit and vegetables. It identifies a stark city-country divide, with families in relatively affluent rural areas facing significantly higher risks of food insecurity than similar households in deprived urban neighbourhoods.
While only 7% of lower-income households in deprived urban areas lived more than a 20-minute walk from the nearest shop selling fresh fruit and vegetables, this figure rose dramatically to 52.5% for households with identical incomes in rural locations.
Understanding Food Insecurity
Food insecurity is defined as poor access to nutritious food caused by a lack of money or nearby shops, often leading to meal-skipping and poor diet. In February, approximately one in eight UK households were estimated to have experienced food insecurity.
Dr Megan Blake, the study's author and a senior lecturer in food security at the University of Sheffield, explained: "For 'struggling middle' families in rural areas, food security is not just about bank balance but physical and geographical barriers that make navigating the cost of living crisis nearly impossible."
She added: "When a struggling household lives in a food desert with no nearby shop and poor quality food options, their risk of food insecurity is over 22 times higher than a household in the same income bracket that can walk five minutes to a budget supermarket. It's not just about being poor. It's about the environment punishing you for being poor."
Contributing Factors
High food and energy costs, the disappearance of village stores, meagre public transport options, and supermarket logistics systems that favour cities all combine to create food deserts and increase the risks of food insecurity.
One rural dweller interviewed for the study remarked: "Village life or country way of life is not all it's cracked up to be. Being financially very poor and a lack of access to food just do not help."
Food deserts also appear in isolated edge-of-city social housing estates and coastal areas. For example, community activists in Castlemilk, a Glasgow suburb with 15,000 residents, have campaigned for years unsuccessfully for a large supermarket to be built locally.
Call for National Review
The Sheffield study, based on a survey of 14,158 households in England and Scotland earning under £40,000, says persistent household food insecurity "exposes deep cracks in the structural foundations of our communities" and is linked to poor mental and physical health, stress, and social stigma.
The study calls for a national review of areas with poor access to food shops, focusing on rural areas, post-industrial and coastal communities, and for support for low-cost and subsidised food retail alternatives such as food clubs and social supermarkets.
Price Disparities
UK food costs have risen by 50% since 2021, but prices are significantly higher in food deserts. Research by South Cotswolds food bank in 2024 found that the cost of a basic basket of food was up to 62% higher in village convenience stores than in the nearest market town low-cost superstore.
However, the study found that food insecurity was not reducible to income alone. While lower-income households in full-time work were far more likely to be above the poverty line than those reliant solely on welfare benefits, both groups experienced similar levels of food insecurity.
Government Response
A government spokesperson said: "Our goal is to build a food system that ensures everyone can access safe, affordable and healthy food. Through outcomes set out in our Good Food Cycle we are tackling food insecurity head-on, improving access to good food in deprived communities and delivering on our manifesto commitment to end mass dependence on food parcels."
They added: "We have already expanded free breakfast clubs, widened free school meals to half a million more children, and proudly removed the two-child limit on benefits, lifting 450,000 children out of poverty."
