Sir Keir Starmer does not have a “coherent approach to social mobility”, the government’s social mobility commissioner has said.
Alan Francis, the government’s top adviser, told the Guardian there was no “overarching narrative” that brought together the various policy elements and called on the prime minister to set out a clearer strategy.
A report published by the commission last week warned that “extreme regional disparities exist” in the UK, with many former industrial and mining areas being the worst affected.
“Our government talks quite a lot about social mobility, but mostly about the social mobility of individuals, themselves and their colleagues,” Francis said.
“But what we don’t have is a consistent approach to social mobility as a useful concept on which we can build a strategy.”
He praised separate policies on housing and skills, but said other proposals were a “standstill” as around one million young people were currently out of education, work or training.
“There are other policies, such as growth and improving education, but we have no idea where they are going,” Francis said.
Without an overall strategy, the government “will struggle to have a clear view of what can be done to address some of these issues and improve the situation,” he said.
Among the conclusions of this week’s report is that children’s educational attainment and future life chances in the UK remain largely determined by their family background. He also said there were “extreme regional disparities” within the country.
A government spokesperson said the number of young people not in education, work or training was a crisis that could not be ignored, and Alan Milburn’s review would help create a system that ensured all young people had the chance to get something out of life.
The report lists the north-east of England, Yorkshire and the Humber, and the West Midlands as facing “persistently disadvantaged conditions”, while former mining areas in Wales and Scotland are also said to be in “significantly disadvantaged conditions”.
But new regions outside London with “favorable conditions for innovation and growth” include Aberdeen, Brighton, Bristol, Chester, Edinburgh, Oxfordshire, Reading and West Berkshire, the report said.
It also pointed out that from 2022 to 2024, almost half of young people aged 25 to 29 will be employed in professional jobs, up from 36% in 2014 to 2016.
However, people from lower socio-economic backgrounds “have benefited less from these opportunities than their peers,” the report said.
