By Vivienne Russell | 20 October 2014
Britain is on the brink of becoming a ‘permanently divided’ nation, with increasing numbers of people trapped in low paying jobs, shut out of the housing market and hurt by public spending cuts, the government’s social mobility czar has warned.
In his second annual State of the Nation report, Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission chair Alan Milburn called for a ‘new agenda’ to tackle stalled social mobility.
His report highlighted that the 2010s were set to be the first decade since records began without a fall in absolute poverty.
‘2020 could mark a watershed between an era in which for decades there have been rising living standards shared by all and a future era where rising living standards bypass the poorest in society,’ it stated.
The report criticised a lack of honesty among all political parties over the impact of planned public spending and welfare cuts and urged better protections for the working poor. Specifically, the Office for Budget Responsibility should publish an assessment of the impact of each Budget on social mobility and child poverty.
Tax credits could no longer be relied to do ‘all the heavy lifting’ on low pay and both employers and workers would need to play their part by raising wages and working more hours, the report added. Its key recommendation was that the UK become a ‘Living Wage’ nation by 2025 at the latest.
Other recommendations were that half of all larger workplaces offer quality apprenticeships and new forms of housing tenure are developed through both expansion of shared ownership models and reform to the private rented sector.
In education, efforts should be targeted at closing the attainment gap between the poorest children and those from more affluent families and 5,000 more children from free-schools-meals backgrounds should be going to university by the end of the decade.
‘The circumstances are so different, the challenges are so great that the old ways of thinking and acting that have dominated public policy making for decades will simply not pass muster,’ said Milburn.
‘What worked in the past will not serve as an adequate guide for the future. A new agenda is needed.’
Lee Elliot Major, director of policy and development at the Sutton Trust, said: ‘Today’s report shows, that despite some progress, we still have a mountain to climb on social mobility if we are to narrow attainment gaps and improve access to university and the professions.
‘But doing so has economic as well as social benefits, and could add up to £140bn to gross domestic product.’
