ABSTRACT
This penultimate chapter of the book is concerned with rural welfare and, more specifically, attempts by government and other agencies to tackle poverty in rural areas of Britain and the United States. The intention here is not to provide a comprehensive account of the historical development of welfare provision, nor a detailed review of all current policies that impact on the welfare of poor people in rural areas. Rather, the chapter seeks to provide a broad overview of recent shifts in national welfare programmes, the impacts of these programmes and specific policies in rural areas, and key policies of rural welfare that have been developed by government and other agencies at different – national, regional and local – spatial scales.
