Problems in coastal and rural communities challenge north-south divide
This article tells us: The Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission published its social mobility index (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/social-mobility-index) this week. This is the first ever ranking of English council areas by social mobility, with the results showing that some of the worst areas for improving the prospects of poor children are in more wealthy parts of the country.
It follows warnings by Ofsted about a concentration of under-performing schools in the north and midlands, and calls into question general rhetoric over a divide between the north and south.
In the social mobility index drawn up by the commission, West Somerset is the area ranked as the worst, closely followed by Norwich in East Anglia, Wychavon in the West Midlands and Corby in Northamptonshire.
Of the 10 worst areas for social mobility, three are in the east of England, three are in the east midlands and two are in the north west. The report also shows coastal areas like Blackpool, Great Yarmouth and Minehead and industrial towns, including Mansfield and Stoke, are “becoming entrenched social mobility cold spots”.
On the other end of the scale, all of the top 10 boroughs for social mobility are in London, with the report showing a “more concentrated divide” in life chances between London and its commuter belt and the rest of the country.
The report says: “A key factor in the dominance of these areas – especially those in Greater London – is the strong educational outcomes of disadvantaged young people at primary and secondary school and the relatively high chances they have of progressing to university.”
The report goes on to explain that a large number of social mobility cold-spots are formerly-prosperous seaside resorts, which were built on a booming tourist trade, and have “struggled in the last few decades due to increased competition from Mediterranean resorts”.
These disadvantages are “accentuated by poor transport links to England’s main urban centres”, the report says.
Former Labour MP and minister Alan Milburn, who chairs the commission, said the report “laid bare the local lottery in social mobility”, and got “beneath the surface of a crude north/south divide and calls into question some of the conventional wisdom about where disadvantage is now located”.
He said: “I hope the government will put itself at the head of a new national drive to ensure that in future progress in life depends on aptitude and ability, not background and birth: on where people aspire to get to, not where they have come from. This report suggests that is long overdue.”