Scotland: National Rural Network
Connecting Rural Scotland - Promoting Rural Growth

The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) is calling on the public in remote communities across the UK to help them with a fact-finding review to find out more about the challenges facing consumers and businesses in these areas.

The OFT will be seeking to explore issues such as higher prices of goods and services in remote areas, access to key services such as shops, dentists and public transport, higher fuel prices and costly delivery charges when buying online.

Kyla Brand, OFT Director, said, "Geography and population density can have a major impact on the cost and accessibility of goods and services to consumers, and on how businesses operate. We want to get a clearer picture of these issues and understand and explain some of the reasons behind them. We also want to explore what the OFT, or other bodies could do to reduce the downsides, and maximise the benefits of remoteness."

As part of the project, the OFT will be running workshops with residents in seven locations across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. These include Devon, Northumberland, Shetland, Highland, Gwynedd, Bridgend and County Tyrone. The locations have been chosen to reflect the diverse nature of the UK's remote communities and to include coastal, inland, island and mainland areas, and those with varied socio-demographic profiles.

The OFT will also look at evidence and experience from across the entire UK and will explore how other countries address specific market issues arising in isolated communities.

Consumers and businesses wishing to contribute to the study are requested to send their views before 20th April to the OFT Office in Scotland, 23 Walker Street, Edinburgh EH3 7HX, fill in an online form available from www.oft.gov.uk/remcom or email remotecommunities@oft.gsi.gov.uk.

You can get omre information on the OFT website.

The OFT expects to publish the outcome of this call for evidence by July.