Shaping the future of rural Northumberland

On explaining why he chose Northumberland as the backdrop to his post-apocalyptic horror film 28 Years Later, director Danny Boyle observed that much of the county still “looks like it would have done 1000 years ago” – a landscape that feels ancient and untamed, where nature appears to have reclaimed the land.

What makes Northumberland visually compelling on screen is also what makes it economically distinctive off it.

From Berwick to Blyth and Haltwhistle to Kielder, England’s most sparsely populated county – where 97 per cent of land is classified as rural – possesses a scale and authenticity that define its character and underpin its economy.

Its castles, coastline, farmland, forests and national park are not simply heritage assets but working landscapes, supporting industries that sustain communities across the county.

From farms and forestry to food and drink producers, tourism operators, rural manufacturers and diversified land-based enterprises, Northumberland’s rural economy is both broad and interconnected – rooted in land, yet increasingly shaped by innovation, collaboration and enterprise.

Here, in an exclusive roundtable discussion sponsored by Northumberland County Council, GFW and Lycetts Insurance Brokers, and hosted by Brocksbushes Farm Shop alongside multi-platform publisher NET, regional business leaders and policymakers examined where rural Northumberland stands in 2026 – and whether policy and investment are keeping pace with the county’s economic potential.

Words by Peter Anderson

Photography by Lauren Peters (The Bigger Picture Agency)

WHERE DOES RURAL NORTHUMBERLAND STAND IN 2026 – AND IS POLICY KEEPING PACE?

In a county as vast and varied as Northumberland – where offshore renewables and advanced manufacturing sit alongside farms, forests and market towns – the economy is as layered as the landscape itself.

From globally exporting timber processors and distilleries to family farms, tourism operators and micro-enterprises rooted in scattered communities, that diversity is both its defining strength and its ongoing challenge.

Bringing coherence to such an eclectic mix of sectors and places is no small task.

That is the role Business Northumberland is seeking to play.

Established in its current form in October 2024, though building on more than two decades of business support activity, the service is Northumberland County Council’s economic development arm – focused on driving growth, attracting investment and supporting businesses across the county.

Through programmes such as the Northumberland Small Business Service, the Farming Advisory Service and rural growth initiatives backed by the North East Combined Authority, it provides a gateway to funding, advice and strategic support.

Sarah McMillan, director of economic development and growth at Northumberland County Council, outlined how its new economic strategy reflects a deliberate effort to ensure the county’s rural economy is integral to its future growth.

She said: “Our economic strategy recognises the importance of our rural economy and rural communities.

“It builds on a strong evidence base about how that economy works – and on the investment we’ve already made.”

Among those programmes, Sarah highlighted the Rural Asset Multiplier Pilot (RAMP), which has channelled millions of pounds into community-led projects, as well as the Borderlands Inclusive Growth Deal – a ten-year programme bringing sustained capital investment into rural towns and cultural assets on both sides of the border.

However, Sarah stressed funding alone is not enough.

She added: “We’ve learned that we can’t expect rural businesses to come to us.

“We have to go to them, take activity out across the county and make sure support reaches people who might not even realise it’s there.”

Looking ahead, Sarah pointed to the North East Combined Authority’s £8.5 million Rural Growth Programme, which will extend one-to-one business support, agri-tech investment and targeted food and drink development.

She added: “One of the first things the combined authority agreed was its Environment, Rural and Coastal Investment Plan.

“That recognition – that rural areas are central to the North East’s future – really matters.”

Rosie Thomas, director of business development at Northumberland National Park, welcomed what she described as a more integrated approach to rural policy.

Stretching from the Scottish border to Hadrian’s Wall and spanning more than 1000 square kilometres of protected landscape, the National Park is both an environmental asset and a working economy – home to farms, tourism operators and rural enterprises operating within carefully managed land resources. 

Reflecting on the £17 million Environment, Rural and Coastal Investment Plan, led by Northumberland County Council and agreed by the North East Combined Authority in 2024, Rosie praised what she described as a genuinely collaborative process.

She said: “You can sit in consultations and feel like someone else is holding the pen.

“With this one, though, it genuinely felt like the pen was jointly held.”

She added the plan’s strength lay in recognising people and the environment not as afterthoughts to growth, but as assets in their own right.

Rosie added: “Too often, people and the environment are tagged on at the end of growth plans.

“This recognised them as central to how we develop the rural economy.”

That theme of adaptation was echoed by Barbara Huddart, managing director at Glendale PR and head of marketing at Bedmax, the Detchant-based manufacturer supplying specialist bedding products to the equestrian and racing industries.

Barbara said that while Bedmax has grown its export markets significantly in recent years, shifts within the leisure equine sector mean the business must continually adapt.

She said: “Our markets have changed over the years.

“Export has grown hugely, and we now supply into Europe, Australia and Asia.

“But the leisure equine sector is reducing, so we do have to look at different opportunities.”

The company has diversified beyond traditional wood shavings into straw pellets and biomass fuel products.

Barbara added: “Opportunities are growing, but the market is changing – and we have to change with it.”

In a county home to vast swathes of productive woodland – including Kielder Forest, England’s largest man-made woodland, which produces around 475,000 cubic metres of timber each year – forestry remains a key pillar of the rural economy.

However, as Max McLaughlan, forestry director and head of wood purchasing at EGGER UK – which employs more than 600 people at its Hexham plant – told roundtable members, the sector faces mounting structural pressures, with domestic timber supply increasingly under strain.

He said: “We import around 80 per cent of the timber we use in the UK.

“We’ll never be fully self-sufficient, but we could be doing a lot better.”

Referencing a 15 per cent reduction in productive forest in England over the past decade, Max added: “We are eroding our own capacity at a time when global demand for timber is set to quadruple over the next 50 years.

“If we’re not growing more of what we need here, we’re exposing ourselves to risk and offshoring that responsibility elsewhere.”

In a similar vein, Neil Harrison, co-founder and director of Alnwick-headquartered Reheat, said the region must take a more integrated view of how forestry assets are used, particularly in the transition to low-carbon heat.

Neil said: “We have the raw material and the technology to build on our existing timber processing businesses and turn low-grade timber into energy and build local supply chains around it. 

“But we’re not taking a strategic approach to growing the timber resource we’ll need in the future.

“If those supply chains are to work in the long term, we need to be planting the right trees today.”

Sarah McMillan, director of economic development and growth at Northumberland County Council, and Max McLaughlan, forestry director and head of wood purchasing at EGGER UK

Neil Harrison, co-founder and director of Reheat, and Rosie Thomas, director of business development at Northumberland National Park

WHAT ARE THE BIGGEST BARRIERS HOLDING RURAL ENTERPRISE BACK – AND WHAT WOULD UNLOCK INVESTMENT AND GROWTH?

While roundtable members highlighted the scale of opportunity within Northumberland’s rural economy, they were equally clear about the barriers holding businesses back.

From complex planning processes and securing finance to the realities of operating in a vast and sparsely connected county, many argued ambition alone is rarely the limiting factor. 

Instead, a combination of regulatory hurdles, funding constraints and physical infrastructure can make delivering projects and unlocking investment significantly harder for rural businesses.

Neil pointed to inconsistencies between planning authorities, suggesting lengthy processes, complex requirements and rising costs can place a heavy burden on businesses before projects even begin.

He said: “On paper, approval rates might look strong – but the real question is how long the process takes and how much money businesses have to invest before they even get there.

“You can end up spending thousands on reports and supporting evidence just to get an application through the system.”

Neil added that while planners often operate within strict regulatory frameworks, under-resourced departments can unintentionally slow progress and increase costs, acting as a brake on innovation and economic development. 

He added: “A lot of the time it’s not that planners are trying to block projects – they just want to make sure everything is covered.

“If you have a planning team that understands business and helps people get things right from the start, it can make a huge difference.”

Rosie agreed that ensuring applications are properly prepared from the outset is critical, arguing that early engagement between businesses and planners can help avoid unnecessary delays later in the process.

Citing the National Park’s Dark Skies guidance, Rosie said the authority works with applicants early in the process to ensure developments are designed appropriately from the outset.

She added: “It’s about making sure people have the information up front.

“The pre-application process is really important, because it’s much easier to get things right at the beginning.”

Access to funding was another issue where roundtable members found broad agreement.

While programmes delivered through initiatives such as Business Northumberland offer routes to grants, advice and investment, participants suggested navigating those options – and securing the capital needed to move projects forward – can still prove difficult.

Eileen Ferguson, co-founder of Ad Gefrin – a direct beneficiary of the Borderlands Inclusive Growth Deal – said securing funding had proved, and continues to prove, “extremely difficult”.

She said: “Just because you’ve got a good idea and some Government support doesn’t mean the money is easy to secure.

“We were determined, but we had to bring in a team to help us navigate the process.

“You have to provide huge amounts of information and go through the process again and again – and for smaller businesses that would be incredibly difficult.”

Infrastructure – particularly the region’s road network – was another issue where roundtable members found common ground.

Referring to the long-running debate around the A1, where sections of single carriageway continue to cause congestion and safety concerns – and where plans to dual the remaining stretch between Morpeth and Ellingham were scrapped by the Government in 2024 – Barbara said this continues to cause delays and hold back economic growth.

She added: “Accessibility and the road network have a huge impact on our business.

“The number of times the A1 is blocked because it’s a single carriageway – particularly around Morpeth – creates real disruption.

“If your business relies on people moving around the region, those delays become a serious challenge.”

Eileen Ferguson, co-founder of Ad Gefrin, and Simon Aitken, divisional director and head of the Newcastle office at Lycetts

Elliot Taylor, partner and farm business consultant at GFW, and Shona Ferguson, property manager at Fergusons Blyth Group

WHAT DOES SUCCESSFUL DIVERSIFICATION LOOK LIKE – AND HOW CAN RURAL BUSINESSES BUILD RESILIENT, YEAR-ROUND ENTERPRISES?

Travelling north along the A697 towards the Cheviots and Northumberland National Park brings visitors to the medieval market town of Wooler – a place that, until recently, few beyond the region might have associated with international attention.

Yet just beyond the town lies Yeavering, site of Ad Gefrin – the seventh century royal palace of King Edwin of Northumbria and his successors.

For centuries, that history lay largely hidden.

Today, on a former haulage yard in the heart of Wooler, it has been reimagined.

The £16 million Ad Gefrin Anglo-Saxon Museum and Whisky Distillery blends premium English whisky production with a technologically immersive visitor experience rooted in Northumbria’s past.

Backed by public and private investment, the venture has created dozens of jobs and has established Wooler as a destination in its own right.

For Eileen, the project was rooted in passion and a determination to invest in the community she calls home.

She said: “It was a project of passion for me and my husband.

“Wooler hadn’t seen significant investment for a long time, but we could see the potential.

“We were standing on a derelict haulage yard thinking we could do something iconic here – not just for us, but for Northumberland.”

“We started the project in earnest in 2018 and opened in 2023, but in many ways we’re only just getting going.”

With both a visitor attraction and a premium spirits business operating side by side, Ad Gefrin sits at the intersection of tourism and manufacturing – a dual model that brings opportunity, but also complexity.

Eileen added: “We’re a tourism business, but we’re also building a whisky brand. 

“That means navigating planning, investment, production and export all at the same time.

“We’ve built a beautiful building, but more importantly we’ve built a brand. 

“That brand is what allows us to sell Northumberland to the world.”

In a similar fashion – albeit over a longer period – Brocksbushes has charted its own path of diversification.

Originally a 1970s agricultural contracting operation, the Dickinson family moved into soft fruit production before developing a seasonal pick-your-own enterprise, which later expanded into a farm shop and café.

More recently, the business has invested in retail, hospitality and play barn designed to create a more resilient, year-round operation.

Harry Dickinson, director at Brocksbushes, returned in 2017 to help lead the next phase of the family business. 

He said: “Fruit in the summer was our core business, but the rest of the year was a bit of a rollercoaster.

“We always felt we were missing something all year round, particularly for families.”

After beginning the planning process in 2017, permission was secured in 2020, paving the way for the redevelopment that opened in 2024.

Harry added: “The aim was to create something for everyone, whatever the weather.

“We’re trying to flatten that seasonality and build resilience into the business.”

Shona Ferguson, property manager at Cramlington-headquartered Fergusons Blyth Group, highlighted another form of diversification.

While the business is widely associated with trucks and logistics, she explained that Fergusons has also built a substantial commercial property portfolio alongside its core operations.

She said: “People tend to know us for haulage.

“But historically we’ve acquired land, and that’s grown into a significant property portfolio.

“We’re a big landlord for a lot of small businesses, particularly in south east Northumberland.”

That diversification has allowed the company to broaden its income streams, but it also offers a window into the pressures facing rural enterprises.

Shona added: “We’re seeing some of those smaller businesses struggling more than they have in the past. 

“There are challenges around business rates and awareness of funding support.

“If you want to move into new areas – whether that’s tourism or other commercial uses – there are hurdles to get over.”

This point was further emphasised by Elliot Taylor, partner and farm business consultant at GFW, who said diversification does not always deliver the financial returns many assume.

He said: “Around 74 per cent of farmers now report some form of diversified income.

“But in many cases, only around 17 per cent of total turnover actually comes from those activities.

“It’s one thing having a diversification project on paper, but it’s another generating meaningful, consistent income from it.”

That growing complexity was echoed by Simon Aitken, divisional director and head of the Newcastle office at Lycetts, who said diversification is increasingly shifting rural businesses into unfamiliar territory.

He said: “For many of our clients, their original DNA is agriculture.

“But diversification is now taking them firmly into a commercial space.

“That changes the risk profile completely.”

From an insurance perspective, Simon added business owners must increasingly rethink how their operations are structured and protected.

He said: “All of a sudden we’re having to educate people on different types of cover.

“That needs to be considered right at the outset, particularly where funding is involved.”

From an insurance perspective, Simon added business owners must increasingly rethink how their operations are structured and protected.

He said: “All of a sudden we’re having to educate clients on protection for different risk exposures which need to be structured correctly at the outset, particularly where funding is involved and contractual obligations are present.” 

Barbara Huddart, managing director at Glendale PR and head of marketing at Bedmax, and Harry Dickinson, director at Brocksbushes

The roundtable was chaired by John Duns, director and joint owner of NET

CAN TECHNOLOGY DRIVE A STEP-CHANGE IN RURAL PRODUCTIVITY?

With the North East preparing for the £30 billion AI Growth Zone centred on the Cambois data centre campus, the region is positioning itself at the forefront of a new wave of digital capability.

Northumberland County Council is seeking to connect that momentum to rural enterprise, supporting businesses such as Prudhoe-based drone technology firm OpenWorks through growth grants while hosting agri-tech showcase events to encourage wider adoption.

Yet, as roundtable members suggested, the key question is how tools such as artificial intelligence, automation and data-led agriculture might translate into tangible productivity gains across land-based industries and rural supply chains.

Elliot suggested that while artificial intelligence is already reshaping sectors such as professional services, it could also drive innovation across agriculture and land-based industries.

He said: “Artificial intelligence is going to revolutionise professional services, but the potential across agriculture is just as exciting.

“We’re entering one of the most innovative periods the sector has seen – from robotics and automation through to advances in plant science and genetics.”

However, Elliot warned sustained investment would be essential if rural businesses are to adopt emerging technologies, pointing to schemes such as the Government’s Farming Equipment and Technology Fund, which supports investment in productivity, animal welfare and slurry management equipment.

He added: “People don’t invest in technology once and then stop.

“If those types of schemes disappear, momentum could quickly stall.”

Max also pointed to the realities facing manufacturers in rural areas, arguing technological progress must be matched by the infrastructure needed to support it.

He said: “From EGGER’s point of view, technology will play a huge role in how manufacturing evolves.

“But when you look at things like net-zero and the transition to electric vehicles across supply chains, the infrastructure simply isn’t there once you move away from the main transport corridors.

“You have to ask whether businesses will invest in things like electric trucks if the charging capacity just isn’t available.”

Responding to those challenges, Sarah said the council is keen to ensure emerging digital capabilities are accessible to businesses across the county, suggesting digital tools could help overcome some of the barriers traditional created by geography.

She added: “One of the things we’re really interested in exploring is how technology can open up new opportunities for businesses.

“For rural businesses, digital and artificial intelligence adoption has the potential to transform how they operate and grow.

“Through initiatives such as our showcase events, we’re bringing companies together to share ideas and see where new technologies can genuinely add value.

“It won’t solve everything – but it does open up opportunities that simply weren’t there before.”

Northumberland County Council are the lead delivery partner for the North East Rural Growth Programme, which will launch later this spring. The £8.5 million investment from the North East Combined Authority aims to stimulate growth in rural areas across Northumberland, Durham and Gateshead through one-to-one business support, specialist technical advice, start-up support and an Agritech Investment Fund for land-based industries looking to adopt new technology. The programme will also include a specialist, sector-focused food and drink service.

To find out more, please visit www.businessnorthumberland.co.uk, where you can sign up for email newsletters and connect with Business Northumberland on social media to receive updates as further information about the programme is released.

Want your business, product or service to be seen regionally and nationally? Bdaily helps you get your story in front of the right audience, every day. Find out how Bdaily can help →

Join more than 55,000 subscribers by signing up to our daily bulletin each morning here.