Rethinking rural diversification

An estimated 72% of farm businesses already have at least one diversified activity, so diversification itself is nothing new. What’s changing is the landscape around it. Pressure is increasing on yields from traditional sources such as farming and property, policy and funding regimes are responding to new demands on land, consumer preferences are shifting, and new markets are emerging.

Having a diverse set of activities and income streams is increasingly key to long-term resilience — and diversification needs to move beyond “tinkering at the edges” to become an integral part of business strategy.

Taking a ‘Rooted, Relevant and Ready’ approach to diversification

It is not, however, without its challenges. Planning, connectivity, access to workforce and a range of other well-understood constraints mean rural places are rarely operating at their fully productive and economic potential. And even when a site can be unlocked for development, a “build it and they will come” approach is unlikely to succeed.

Getting diversification right means weighing up several different — and sometimes competing — factors at once: what the land and buildings can support, what the market wants, and what matters most to the people who own and run the business.

We believe the full potential of rural enterprise is unlocked when these three things are considered together, rather than in isolation. When the approach taken to diversification is Rooted, Relevant and Ready.

Rooted

Every successful diversification starts with what matters most to the people behind it.

Rural and land-based enterprises are rarely a purely commercial proposition. Often, those making decisions have a multi-generational family interest, or a set of values and objectives that go beyond the purely financial — woven into the fabric of the place itself, and the people who live and work there.

Any new enterprise needs to sit comfortably alongside that legacy: respecting the landscape, character and community of a place, not just the financial opportunity it represents.

Getting this right early avoids a common and costly mistake — pursuing an option that might work on paper, but never feels right for the place, and stalls as a result.

Relevant

The right diversification project responds to genuine market and commercial opportunity — not generic assumptions about what “should” work.

This means looking at national trends, local context and real consumer demand together. Taking this wider context into account opens the breadth and scale of what’s possible, and the opportunity to go beyond the obvious.

Well-trodden paths such as farm shops, campsites and holiday cottages still have their place, but so do a much wider range of alternatives: flexible shared workspaces, padel courts, natural swimming ponds, green burial grounds, sculpture trails, film locations, members’ clubs, specialist retail and production facilities, rehabilitation centres, educational experiences, energy generation and storage. Add to this, new approaches to land management for environmental outcomes — aligned to government funding and increasingly tradeable on emerging nature markets — and the options can feel endless, with decision-making laced with uncertainty.

The right answer depends on understanding where genuine demand lies, not simply where attention currently sits.

Ready

Every option needs to be tested against the practical realities of the site itself — not just survive on paper.

This means understanding development capacity and planning constraints from the outset: what a redundant building, piece of land or site can realistically accommodate, and what’s required to get there — from planning consent and infrastructure to design and operational delivery.

A project that is rooted in the right values and relevant to a genuine market opportunity will still fail if the site can’t support it, or if delivery hasn’t been properly planned and resourced.

Routes to value

Where you start on this journey will differ depending on your circumstances. You may already have a clear, defined idea and need expert support to turn it into reality - planning advice and architectural design to shape a deliverable project, or commercial input to build a viable business plan. Or you may know you need to diversify, have land and property assets to leverage, but not yet know the right course of action - needing support to identify the opportunities, appraise the options, and reach informed decisions with confidence.

Either way, the degree of commitment to environmental regeneration, landscape and heritage protection, and community renewal is often a defining influence on which options are right — and that’s exactly why values, market and site capacity need to be considered together, not in isolation.

A different view

Rural Solutions brings a different view to estate and rural enterprise diversification - one built around being Rooted, Relevant and Ready.

We help clients shape and deliver individual development and diversification projects to create new or enhanced income streams, contributing to long-term resilience and legacy. With a blend of strategic and business consultancy, a specialist rural planning team and an in-house architectural and landscape design studio, we help test, define and design development projects, shape concept, brand and business strategy, secure planning consent, and oversee delivery on site.

We also help clients shape longer-term strategies, understand the opportunities ahead, and define what value means for them, appraising assets and current activities, and identifying the market and development opportunities available to expand and diversify - and the individual projects that deliver on that strategy. And we help build the right partnerships for successful delivery, whether that’s securing funding, accessing specialist design and operational advice, introducing operating partners looking for sites, or shaping and recruiting the right team.

Stay in touch

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