Urbanisation and counterurbanisation, rural change, and the management of social and economic change in places.

What this dot point is asking

WJEC wants you to explain the processes of urban and rural change, their social and economic impacts on places, and how those changes are managed, with located examples.

The answer

Urban change processes

Cities cycle through urbanisation (growth from migration and natural increase), suburbanisation (outward spread to the edge), counterurbanisation (movement to rural areas) and re-urbanisation (return to regenerated inner areas, often led by young professionals and students). Each stage reshapes who lives where along the urban-rural continuum. The rise of remote working since 2020 has accelerated counterurbanisation in parts of Wales, increasing demand in accessible rural and coastal areas.

Rural change

Rural change includes the decline of agricultural employment, the rise of second homes and holiday lets, and the loss of services (shops, post offices, bus routes, schools). In Wales, second-home ownership in areas such as Gwynedd is a major social and cultural issue: in some communities second homes make up over a fifth of the housing stock, affecting affordability and the survival of the Welsh language, which prompted Welsh Government reforms allowing councils to set higher tax premiums and tighter planning rules.

Impacts on places

Newcomers bring spending and skills but also raise house prices, pricing out locals, and can create conflict between incomers and long-standing residents. Service provision is uneven: accessible villages may gain commuter wealth while remote ones lose shops and transport, deepening rural deprivation despite the rural idyll image. Empty second homes can hollow out a village outside the holiday season, undermining schools, bus routes and the viability of the village shop.

Managing urban and rural change

Management mixes regeneration of urban areas, affordable housing schemes, rural service support (community shops, transport), and planning controls on second homes. In Wales, councils such as Gwynedd can now charge a council-tax premium of up to $300$ per cent on second homes, and the Welsh Government has introduced a new planning use-class system to control the conversion of homes to holiday lets. Strategies aim to balance economic vitality with affordability, service access, community cohesion and the Welsh language.

Examples in context

Example 1. Second homes on the Llyn Peninsula, Gwynedd. The Llyn Peninsula, including Abersoch and surrounding villages, is the leading Welsh case study for rural change under counterurbanisation. High demand for coastal second homes has pushed average house prices far above local incomes, hollowed out communities outside the summer season, and weakened Welsh-speaking villages. The response, council-tax premiums and new planning use-classes, makes Gwynedd a national test case for managing the tension between a tourism economy and local affordability and culture.

Example 2. Regeneration in the south Wales valleys. Former mining towns such as Merthyr Tydfil and the Rhondda face the opposite problem: depopulation, deindustrialisation and deprivation rather than overheating demand. Management here uses urban and economic regeneration, including retail and leisure development, brownfield housing, and the South Wales Metro transport investment to link valley communities to Cardiff jobs. The contrast between affluent, pressured rural Gwynedd and declining valley towns shows that managing change means different strategies for different places, exactly the evaluation examiners reward.

Try this

Q1. Define counterurbanisation. [2 marks]

• Cue. The movement of people and activities out of large cities into smaller towns, villages and accessible rural areas.

Q2. Explain one social impact of second-home ownership on a rural community. [3 marks]

• Cue. Second homes raise house prices and leave properties empty for much of the year, pricing out and hollowing out local communities, with effects on services and, in Wales, the Welsh language.