Positive thinking

   Gillian Richards, Nottingham Trent University The UK has one of the widest attainment gaps in education within the developed world. This effectively means that if you are born in the UK to a family living in disadvantaged circumstances, you are much less likely to achieve your potential than your peers. And research shows it may take another 50 years to close this gap . Many young people who grow up in an area that is considered a “cold spot” of social mobility – like many of the UK’s seaside towns and former coal mining communities – are caught up in cycles of deprivation. This affects their aspirations, academic self-confidence and adult life choices. My recently published research looks at the realities of what it’s like to grow up in one of these areas. I spoke to 89 schoolgirls living in a former mining community – designated by the government to be within the UK’s worst 10% in terms of deprivation. In the community i looked at in my study, most me...

   Paul Gregg, University of Bath How to address inequality in society by redistributing incomes through taxes and benefits has long divided left and right. But equalising opportunities, commonly called social mobility, has wide political credence. The constrained opportunities of children who grow up in less affluent households is not just an issue of natural justice but also of wasted talents. In an era of stagnant productivity and wages, poor social mobility represents an economic as well as a social cost to Britain. And Britain’s record on social mobility is among the worst in advanced countries, along with the US and Italy. The Social Mobility Commission, which I was a member of until I resigned alongside the chair Alan Milburn in early December, sought to highlight this and to argue for policy engagement to address it. Our latest report highlighted that Britain is not a good country to be born poor and that across the country there is huge variati...

Kate Pickett, University of York and Richard Wilkinson, University of York If moving forward is the goal, it’s a not a good policy to stand still. Yet we hear little from the government about solutions to Britain’s poor record on social mobility. Earlier this year both the current administration and its predecessors were roundly condemned for their failure to make any headway. Research has repeatedly shown the clear link between high levels of income inequality and low levels of social mobility. This graph, from our book The Spirit Level shows that far from being the land of opportunity, the US has very low social mobility. You’re much more likely to achieve the “American dream” if you live in Denmark.  Mobility and inequality. The Spirit Level , Author provided British social mobility is damaged by the UK’s high income inequality. Economists have argued that young peo...