28 May 2021 Rural and large county areas across the country have shouldered much of the pandemic’s economic shock, writes the acting chair of the County Councils Network and leader of Somerset CC. It goes without saying that the coronavirus has impacted on virtually every aspect of our lives: from how we work and how we live to how we travel. But for an increasingly large chunk of the population the most direct impact of the pandemic has been on their economic and employment prospects. Three national lockdowns, sandwiched between localised restrictions, have led to the collapse of swathes of businesses and hastened the potential closure of many more.