In consulting with Citizens Advice Bureaux and analysing the case evidence from bureaux clients, it is clear that consumers in remote communities face many barriers.
These were:
- work can be harder to find, particularly given high cost travel
- further to travel to JobCentres, work capability assessments etc
- high cost of groceries and often limited choice of goods or supplier
- high cost of fuel for heating and for transport and little choice of supplier
- problems with fulfilment for online shopping such as high cost delivery or refusal by retailers and couriers to deliver to certain areas
- poor access to internet, whether due to low broadband speeds or distance to facilities like libraries
- poor mobile phone reception
Publication date:
April 2012
Publication type:
Policy
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