British Rural Boom Driven By Creative Migration

A study of 200 businesses in the UK suggests that the creative class are leaving towns with little character and relocating to more rural locations thanks partly to the rise of digital communications. The Telegraph reports:

Clwyd in Wales, St Ives in Cornwall and Torridge in Devon are set to be among the top five most appealing locations for business in the future at the expense of places such as Exeter and Guildford, both in the bottom 10 in a list of 641 centres.

Researchers cite the “clone town” syndrome as a key reason for the migration and loss of creativity in urban locations. They say town centres now look the same, “causing bored locals to switch to autopilot when choosing where to buy a sandwich or coffee, stifling creative thinking”.

“Rural locations tend to have more independent retailers, leading to more diverse high streets and inspiring people to use their brains when out and about,” says the study by Cornwall College’s Morel Research.

Migration of professional workers from cities is helping what the researchers say is a “creativity boom” in rural locations.

These findings are somewhat counter to the the ideas contained in a recent article by NY Times economics columnist which talked about how the creative class flock to the inner-city
because of the exchange of good ideas. And before you start waving this around in your PPTs, dear readers, note-bene that the study was conducted by a college in a rural part of the UK.

Rural boom ‘driven by creative migration’ - Telegraph