Urban-Rural Differences in Commuting in England: A Challenge to the Rural Sustainability Agenda?

While housing affordability and homelessness worsen in rural England, sustainability concerns are being used to reinforce the 60-year-old goal of urban containment. Yet there are claims that the evidence for rural communities being intrinsically unsustainable in terms of their carbon emissions remains weak. This paper aims to improve the evidence base through a focus on commuting behaviour. Following a review of recent studies of commuting that have included a rural dimension, it presents the results of new census-based analyses of differences between places in the distance that residents travel to work. Both indicate that a more nuanced approach is needed towards new development than a simple urban-rural dichotomy.