Social Mobility Starts with Rural Opportunity

Social Mobility, An Opinion Piece by Kerry Booth, Chief Executive of the Rural Services Network

Should Where You Are Born Limit Your Potential?

In a report recently published by The Sutton Trust on Social Mobility, it identified that 42 of the top 50 performing constituencies were located in London. This measured 6 factors including the share of children on free school meals who achieve passes in GCSE maths and English; who complete a degree by age 22; and who make it into the top 20% of earners by age 28.

Living in these London constituencies can therefore provide significant benefits to our young people, however for the 1/6th of our population that live in our rural communities, what are the challenges that they face, in building a better life for themselves?

Last week I attended the House of Lords Select Committee on Social Mobility, with a focus on rural areas and the session considered a wide range of contributing factors.

What Is Social Mobility?

Social mobility is the ability of individuals to change their socioeconomic status, occupation or income. But, if you are born into poverty in London, are you more likely to do well in life, compared to being born into poverty in Devon?

Rural Challenges

Rural residents can face several challenges in trying to improve their situation. The three topics that came up the most in the Select Committee discussion were:

• Lack of Rural Transport Options – limiting access to skills and training, employment, and access to services.
• Poor Mobile and Broadband Connectivity – connectivity was recognised as a key enabler of social mobility.
• Lack of Affordable Housing – the lack of ability to find housing that you can afford, near employment can limit your ability to find higher paid employment.

This all sounds interesting in policy terms, but what is the reality like for our young people in rural areas?

For young people leaving school at 16 and wanting to start an apprenticeship, or study at a further education institution, the lack of transport options can be limiting. It could mean that they simply can’t accept the apprenticeship, due to being unable to get there. Options for study may be dictated by where the bus will get you, rather than the course you actually want to study.

Whilst at school, you may be unable to take part in sports clubs, or creative opportunities because your school bus leaves straight from school and there is no other way to get home.

With a rural economy predominantly made up of sole traders and SME, options for work experience can be limited, and how do you aspire to work towards different career paths, if you don’t know about them, and can’t see them in action.

We see a migration of our young people towards towns and cities when they reach the end of their school career to go to university or for work opportunities, but do we want to be pushing our young people towards this route, or do we want to be giving those that want to stay, the opportunity to live a rewarding prosperous life in the countryside, contributing to our thriving rural communities.

If you start an entry level job after school, the likelihood is that you won’t be able to afford to rent a home in your local rural area, that’s if you can find any long term rentals, as these are few and far between in some areas due to the rise in short term holiday lets.

How do you apply for a job, or do an online course, or access discounted rates for your energy supply, or car insurance, if your broadband connection is poor and mobile signal inadequate?

This Government has started to move funding to target high clusters of deprivation, and absolutely we need to support those in need, but we also need to support those that live in poverty in our market towns, villages and hamlets too. Everyone deserves the opportunity to improve their situation in life, and the challenges in rural areas come together to compound the difficulties in increasing social mobility in rural communities.

Three Things To Overcome Barriers To Social Mobility:

So, what would help? This is a complex problem, needing coordinated policy action, but if I had to name three things I’d like the Government to do, it would include:

1 – Fairly Fund Rural Public Services:

Urban councils this year got 40% more in Government Funded Spending Power compared to rural councils, when we know that it costs more to deliver services in rural areas due to the sparse nature of the population. Fairly funding rural Local Authorities would give them greater capacity to deliver transport solutions, enable affordable housing, and help to grow the rural economy, providing our young people with greater opportunities.

2 – Enable Access To Connectivity, Both Digital and Physical:

We are making improvements to digital connectivity with Project Gigabit and the Shared Rural Network, but we need this work to keep going, and measure the improvements in rural areas. It feels slightly hollow to celebrate almost hitting our target of 85% Gigabit coverage across the country, when rural communities are only at 54%.

Improving funding for transport in rural communities, and recognising that a transport solution may include different modes of transport, and realistically will not be as profitable as urban routes due to less people using them is key to enabling opportunity.

3 – Design Policy To Meet Rural Needs:

Finally, we need a rural focused policy, whether this be a Strategy that focuses on growing the Rural Economy, or a Rural Plan for Change, we need a cross departmental approach that recognises the needs and challenges of rural communities and can start to address those challenges.

If we fail to focus on rural communities, we risk creating a postcode lottery of opportunity — where being born in a village or hamlet means being left behind. Social mobility should not depend on geography.

Every young person, no matter where they live, deserves the chance to succeed, to aspire, and to thrive. It’s time for policy that reflects that — and delivers for all, including rural Britain.