Market Towns

Chapter 9Market towns and rural employment

Trevor Hart and Neil Powe

Introduction

Chapter 3 identified ‘specialised employment’ as a functional role for a number of market towns, where there is one dominant employer or sector of employment, such as defence or manufacturing. Market towns performing such a role were identified as accounting for just less than 20 per cent of towns studied. However, the development of a wider role for market towns to act as centres for employment has been a basic tenet of policy for some years, but the extent to which they perform this role has been questioned by recent research (SERRL 2004). Nonetheless, acting as a source of local employment – and consequently, a contributor to local prosperity – remains a role ...