Rural areas are well known to have lower wages than people earn in towns. Agricultural workers don't earn much, years ago they often lived in 'tied' cottages which meant that if they were ill and were unable to work, they were made homeless. Having spent a lot of time in the Fens recently it's obvious that MOST of the harvesting is by hand - which is where migrant workers help, they arrive in mid-Summer, are housed in basic accommodation, begin early i.e. 5.00 a.m. and stop after 9.00 at night. We could hear the machinery working all night and the factory down the road was producing something containing onions!!!! phew. Without migrant workers we wouldn't get food onto the table.
Acres of pumpkins - a lot of which have been left to rot due to heavy rains recently - potatoes were being harvested as were sugar beets for the factories, being put into heaps first ……
It's never been the cost of housing but the price of the initial deposit! Even now ……. which is why our young people are unable to buy within the villages where they were raised.
Even now, some properties are sold with an 'agricultural tie'
. One doesn't need to eat/drink as much as we do overall, therefore food can be eeked out …… buying in bulk or in a consortium works in some areas. DH and I buy in bulk when we can, we have 'cards' to a huge warehouse and go there about every 3 months.
It is well known that not only on Motorway Services but in rural areas fuel is hellish expensive. Many years ago we saw that fuel in Scotland was really pricey, even though the [oh the word won't come: the place where it's stored and distributed from:] was close by
that's it - distribution centre!
Did our shop there today: bought lots of kitchen roll, Kleenex man-sized boxes and coffee at special offer even within the warehouse - sacks of bird peanuts are £12.99 rather than over £30 elsewhere. It's storing lots of stuff that becomes difficult ………
When growing up in the back of beyond we walked or cycled, only the wage earner had a car.
