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Plunkett UK about to consult with a wide range of stakeholders to help it to understand the challenges of rural community shops but also to identify solutions to help them to thrive and become more resilient and inclusive for the future.

The national charity supports people in rural areas to set up and run a businesses in community ownership, spanning retail and more. It already supports 800 community-owned businesses and a further 500 which are in the process of setting up.

Now, the charity is inviting the community shop sector and community businesses with retail elements to participate in online and in-person workshops, where it will share insights from the wider retail network, and hear the opinions, thoughts, ideas and experiences of community retailers across the UK, to ask what they believe the future of rural retailing should look like.

Running in February and March, anyone can sign up for a course, taking place either on at one of three locations or online. Content from the series, alongside short essays, will be used to form The Future of Rural Retail Report, which will be published later this spring and will mould the work undertaken by Plunkett to support community shops nationwide.

For more information and to sign up for a workshop, click here.