The role of trust in addressing rural deprivation

The topic of trust feels particularly important at this moment for our society, given the current instability within government and the Scottish election this year.

While Central Belt post-industrial deprivation attracts attention, rural poverty is both persistent and under recognised across Scotland and is often hidden behind the picturesque landscapes, and dispersed communities.

The consequences are no less serious with rural families on low incomes, young people leaving and not returning due to lack of opportunities weakened by public service decline and withdrawal. We should also recognise that truthful communication is the bridge between policy and results and, done well, it can be a powerful tool for promoting understanding and engagement.

As a farmer’s wife, I have participated in rural discussions for much of my professional career, triggered by probably the most important piece of work I was involved in. It was an analysis funded by the Scottish Consumer Council entitled Consumer Problems in Rural Areas by G. A. Mackay and G. Laing, published in 1978.

It demonstrated strategically, for the first time, that rural Scotland, from Muckle Flugga to the Mull of Galloway, had major deprivation issues which were not being seriously recognised by government. The Highlands and Islands Development Board (HIDB) was up and running, but this, of course, served the north. It took many years to have it recognised that the whole of south Scotland suffered from similar challenges.

Brexit and COVID also made it even slower that these areas could be recognised, and indeed it was not until 2020 that South of Scotland Enterprise (SoSE) was launched, giving it its own development board outright. Scottish Enterprise did exist, started in 1991, as did Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE), but SoSE is exclusively for the Scottish Borders and Dumfries and Galloway.

Trust in negotiation is vital and includes addressing work and worklessness, family breakdown, educational failure, addiction, debt, and housing. It should be framed not just honestly and politically, but institutionally and territorially.

I would like to highlight the work leading independent think tank The Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) has done to tackle the root causes of poverty and social breakdown and has majored on research across the South of Scotland.

It is recognised that charities do work hard to deliver their objectives, but acknowledge that rural dimensions make it so much more challenging to deliver. It is hoped that they will strengthen and support grassroots charities by connecting front-line charities with policymakers and philanthropists.

The CSJ analysis revealed that official statistics often understate rural hardship, with dispersed deprivation masking poverty in small towns, villages, and remote communities.

Across all measures of poverty, Dumfries and Galloway and the Scottish Borders perform poorly. Child poverty remains stubbornly high, fuel poverty affects 30 per cent of households, and the reality is widespread in-work poverty, low wages, and insecure seasonal work. Transport costs and poor connectivity act as powerful poverty multipliers restricting access to work, education, healthcare, and childcare. Educational disadvantage persists, compounded by digital exclusion, while family breakdown, addiction, housing affordability, poor-quality tied housing, and rising problem debt all contribute to deepening hardship.

I would also advocate that the environment and agriculture must be integrated as structural economic drivers and create opportunities to be strategic partners going forward. For example, the role of renewables should be to urgently address rural poverty. Wind farm trust money is an important area that needs to be part of the wider conversation on poverty. Community wind farm trusts have significant impacts on various rural communities in Scotland.

The Royal Society of Edinburgh has a strong programme tackling so many of these challenges and seeking solutions to problems. I want to ensure that we will be tackling rural poverty as more than an afterthought.

Dame Barbara Kelly FRSE, civic activist and former Chair of the Scottish Consumer Council

This article originally appeared in ReSourcE Spring/Summer 2026.

The RSE’s blog series offers personal views on a variety of issues. These views are not those of the RSE and are intended to offer different perspectives on a range of current issues.