It is often assumed that impoverished communities suffer from a ‘poverty of aspiration’. This implies an element of fecklessness about poverty which is not just unpleasant, it is also wrong.
We know that most poverty in the UK is now among people in work (Joseph Rowntree Foundation, 2015). What is worse is that many people get stuck here in low paid, increasingly unsecure jobs without the qualifications and skills to climb out.
Skills shortages have been a chronic feature of the UK economy (and might be made worse by Brexit).
In a nation of 64 million we still don’t have the doctors, engineers, programmers, nurses, plumbers and electricians the economy needs.
Meanwhile, we have a surplus of hairdressers and sports and fitness graduates pouring out of our further education colleges.
Sir John Rose, former chief executive of Rolls Royce and an inclusive growth commissioner, argues it is our failure to address this which explains the ‘mismatch between job opportunities and skills’.
Work is under way to draft a new industrial strategy for the Autumn Statement next week. It is hoped this will go some way to tackling such long-term skills and productivity issues.
However, for this to be game-changing we’ll need a new, inclusive approach that moves us away from the clunky, centrally-planned corporatism of yesteryear in three ways.
First, we need to invest in human infrastructure, as well as physical, including early years and ‘second chance’ further education that will genuinely enable people to find quality jobs in the local labour market.
Second, for people across the UK to access these jobs, we need to connect other services and infrastructure, including affordable transport, housing, pre-employment support and health (particularly mental health).
This principle should also extend to school, which – while providing a broad, high quality education for all – needs to connect more readily to local employers.
Third, we need to look beyond high-tech sectors, especially to those which employ large numbers of people but don’t have a strong track record of progression opportunities for people at the lower and middle end of the skills distribution. The retail and hospitality sectors will be key.
The Inclusive Growth Commission’s interim report starts to set out how we believe we can shape an economy that allows as many people as possible to contribute to, and benefit from, inclusive growth.
Our final report in spring next year will contain more of the detail for how we make this a reality.
But the challenge will be for places themselves to define their own vision for inclusive growth and to work within a more ‘grown up’ devolution context which blends the best of central and local government – as well as wider civil society and community organisations – to create the conditions for an economy that truly does work for everyone.
Stephanie Flanders is chair of the RSA’s Inclusive Growth Commission
Stephanie Flanders will be speaking at the London Councils Summit 2016