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The government’s social mobility chief has warned that Britain’s young people are at risk of being worse off than previous generations, with stagnant wages, significant geographical inequality and London’s “overheated” housing market. pointed out the impact.
Alan Francis, chairman of the advisory body Social Mobility Commission, said many young graduates were starting to feel that “the social mobility story doesn’t work anymore” and that policymakers needed to support the lowest income groups. He said there was a need to come up with new ideas to do so. .
There have been “winners and losers” across society since the 2008 financial crisis, Francis said ahead of the commission’s annual national situation report, due to be submitted to Congress on Tuesday.
But he added: “The idea that this generation will be better off than previous generations is actually questionable.”
“It has to be a top priority for us,” he said. “We have to ask the question, ‘Are the people at the bottom going to be better off than their parents?'”
Mr Francis added that the economy must be at the center of its consideration and that there is a link between economic innovation and social mobility, which is a key element of the Commission’s research.
But he added that “the biggest problem we have” is the “heterogeneity” of our economic geography, which means “everything is very burdensome on London and the local counties”. Ta.
“Nobody can afford to live there. Young graduates who go to London are becoming disillusioned and starting to lose confidence,” he added. “They are starting to feel that the social mobility story no longer works. [they] I can’t even buy a house. ”
The report predicts that young people’s chances of getting onto the housing ladder are now much more dependent than before on whether their parents own their home.
The commission will provide a composite picture of trends across different social groups and across different regions of the UK. Mr Francisco said policymakers did not have a clear enough understanding of how the UK economy varied by region.
Young people in London, Edinburgh and Manchester are more likely to enter the professions than young people from similar socio-economic backgrounds in other regions, but the committee also found that all three cities still suffer from some levels of poverty and under-representation. It is also expected to highlight its struggles with profits.
Francisco said the nation’s bottom 20% of income earners, many of whom leave school without learning basic English and maths, should now be at the “center” of policy.
Regarding past attempts to improve mobility for the most disadvantaged, he said: “A lot of the provisions that target the most disadvantaged don’t change that. I think that misses the point.” he said. “I think they’re running out of ideas about how to change their outcomes.”
He said just because “there are some Dick Whittington stories” does not mean the country is fair, adding: “We know that wages have been flat for a long time. . . . and that is at the root of many of the problems.”