Henry Buller

Re-creating rural territories: leader in France

This paper explores the impact of the European Unions leader policy within France. Considering, in turn, the territorial, developmental and, finally, political effects of leader, the paper demonstrates that leader schemes occupy an often highly complex position with respect to a series of internal French policy agendas linked to political decentralization, spatial planning and the gradual shift away from a long-dominant agrarian conceptualization of rural space. It is argued that while leader schemes present many of the necessary components for new forms of local rural governance, these remain largely constrained within an existing political, economic and administrative framework that offers only partial opportunities for genuine innovation in policy development. Critically, however, one of the principal leader effects within France has been to shift the local rural policy agenda away from solely economic development strategies, for many years the mainstay of non-agricultural rural policy, towards a more reflexive approach to issues of social cohesion and territorial composition.

Retired British Home Owners in Rural France

Drawing on a survey of 406 British home owners in France, this study examines the origins, destinations and reasons for purchasing homes in rural France. In doing so it compares first home retired households with their pre-retirement counterparts and with second home owners who are retired. No notable differences are found in the geographical distribution or reasons for selecting home locations between these groups. However, patterns of retirement migration to France do appear to differ from intra-national long-distance migration within Britain and North America. Pointers to these differences are given and suggestions for future research are made. In addition, despite family visits and the friendship that people find in their recipient French communities, it is suggested that potential problems could arise for residents in relatively isolated rural communes. More research is needed to assess whether the positive attractions that are drawing retirement migrants from Britain to France will outweigh the negative consequences of their new home location.

The social integration of British home owners into French rural communities

Abstract Based upon a survey of recent British buyers of French rural property, this paper considers the attitudes of British permanent residents and British second home owners in France both towards host French communities and towards each other. In exploring the notion of integration, we examine the nature and extent of contacts between British and French populations at the local level and identify the principal barriers to assimilation. The division between those British nationals who seek to integrate and those who seek to maintain essentially British social networks is assessed as is the impact of British newcomers upon local French communities. We conclude by identifying major differences between the integration strategies of Britons in France and those employed by urban to rural migrants in Britain.

British home owners and housing change in rural France

Abstract Drawing on a survey of 406 home owners in France, expansion in British property ownership is shown to have increased the rural housing stock and to have improved rural housing quality. In all, 30 per cent of British home owners in France have added at least one dwelling to the housing stock, mostly by restoring a derelict property or bringing an unwanted farm building into residential use. Amongst other property owners, 55 per cent have undertaken significant renovations (extensions, major structural work, etc.), so more than two‐thirds of all British buyers have helped raise the quality of the rural housing stock. This has had little effect on house prices, partly because there is little French demand for the properties Britons buy. Given that British buyers are also reluctant to acquire homes from other Britons, a semi‐autonomous housing market is being created in which resales are difficult. This tendency is weakening slightly now, but British owners who wish to sell continue to rely on France...

Towards sustainable water management: Catchment planning in France and Britain

Water management in European States is currently undergoing a series of major shifts linked to changing user and consumer demands, the increasing role of European Union legislation and, critically, the need to address sustainability in water uses. These shifts have a spatial expression. A comparative analysis of recent water management practice in two Member States of the EU, France and Britain (England and Wales), reveals both a new territorial focus in water management, as existing structures and institutions of water policy adapt to the changing environmental agenda, and the development of an integrated approach at the local level based upon river catchments.

Property agents as gatekeepers in British house purchases in rural France

The central question of this paper is whether estate agents in France and companies advertising French property in Britain have directed the pace and geographical distribution of British rural house purchases in France. Such purchases are influential in raising the quality of the rural housing stock and generating local employment, so directing such property investments has important implications for rural development. This issue has particular long-term consequences, as British interest in purchasing rural homes in France mushroomed in the late 1980s and retains much latent potency today. Based on interviews with 30 property companies in Britain and 30 estate agents in France, plus questionnaire responses from 406 households in five departements, it is shown that early company involvement in this property market was associated with increased consumer awareness and interest. However, the extent to which companies direct purchasing behaviour seems more restricted; being most notable for those purchasers who are unfamiliar with France and French legal/property procedures.

The Europeanisation of local environmental politics: Bathing water pollution in south‐west England

Abstract The influence of European environmental policy is transforming more than just the way that environmental protection is organised and implemented in the UK. The nature of environmental politics is also changing dramatically. The paper examines the implementation of the Bathing Waters Directive in the South West of England to illustrate how Europeanisation opens up new scope and spaces for political action. The legal standards laid down in directives such as the Bathing Waters Directive provide an authoritative yardstick which environmental pressure groups can use to exert pressure at the local as well as the national level. In turn, Europe becomes increasingly viewed in the UK as the moral arbiter of what counts as ‘pollution’.