Rural Britain’s trust in the BBC has collapsed to crisis levels, according to new polling that campaigners say exposes a broadcaster increasingly estranged from the communities it is meant to serve.
The Regional Moorland Groups, which represents upland organisations, have written to the incoming BBC Director General calling for sweeping reforms to rural coverage, citing fresh YouGov polling that they argue reveals a profound disconnect.
Conducted last week, the figures show that only 2% of UK adults believe the BBC represents rural areas “very accurately”, a result that campaigners describe as deeply troubling for a public service broadcaster.
The concerns are underscored by broader mistrust across the countryside. More than half of rural residents — 53% — think the BBC still depends on a narrow set of individuals and organisations when covering rural issues, echoing warnings first raised in a 2014 BBC Trust review.
Just 24% of Britons overall think the broadcaster is unbiased on rural matters, while 37% of rural respondents say the BBC represents their areas inaccurately and 38% feel personally misrepresented.
These findings sit within a long-running argument over who is permitted to speak for rural Britain. Campaigners say that when the BBC tackles moorland management, grouse shooting or upland farming, those who work the land — farmers, gamekeepers, land managers and rural workers with deep generational ties — are routinely overlooked.
They argue that this lack of representation allows national narratives to be shaped instead by urban-based campaigning groups with little lived experience of rural livelihoods.
The timing of the intervention is deliberate. The recent resignations of Tim Davie and Deborah Turness after the misleading editing of a speech by former US President Donald Trump have fuelled claims that the BBC’s problems with impartiality are “institutional, not incidental”.
Campaigners say that if the broadcaster cannot reliably present a speech, rural communities cannot be expected to trust it to navigate the complexities of land management or field sports.
Critics also point to slow progress since the BBC Trust’s 2014 impartiality review, which identified metropolitan bias and warned that rural stories were “too often viewed through the lens of environmentalism”.
They highlight the continued prominence of high-profile presenters with strong campaigning stances, such as Chris Packham — who in 2015 labelled farmers, hunters and gamekeepers “the nasty brigade” in BBC Wildlife magazine — and Mark Carwadine, who this year described grouse shooting as “wildlife slaughter and habitat desecration” on an “industrial scale”. Campaigners say opposing viewpoints grounded in day-to-day rural work have never been given comparable space or support.
In their letter, the Regional Moorland Groups urge the incoming Director General to overhaul rural output through independent correspondents with practical experience, clearer editorial guidelines ensuring meaningful inclusion of rural workers’ perspectives, and a dedicated Rural Affairs department with real autonomy.
Rural Britain, they say, is watching closely — and the new polling suggests the BBC has “a long way to go”. Whether the Corporation chooses to act may determine its standing across the countryside for years to come.
