The North Yorkshire Rural Commission has published its landmark first report. One of the issues the commissioners raised was the lack of younger people living in the area, which has left an estimated £1.4bn gap in the local economy. Mr Pollard told the Yorkshire Post: “Rural communities matter but I think they’ve been overlooked and taken for granted for far too long. That means policy is often made for urban areas and then imposed on rural areas. "That often doesn’t work, and if we are to genuinely build back better after the pandemic we've got to recognise that it’s about more than simply planting trees, that’s about addressing the structural inequalities that exist within society.