Read: New research highlights why social mobility should be top of the political agenda

If you are born in a position of disadvantage, it will be harder now than at any point over the last half century to move up the social ladder.

That’s the stark message from the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) in a new report which reveals how entrenched poor social mobility remains in many parts of the country. The research analysed income data for those born in the 1960s, 70s and 80s and found that parental income had become a much stronger indicator of the earnings that people born from the 1970s onwards could expect by the age of 28. The growth of inheritances for the children of wealthy parents was also more important in determining lifetime income - that is likely to drive a further decline in social mobility for those born in the 80s compared with previous generations. With huge increases in house prices in recent decades – which served to help those parents already on the property ladder to pass on greater wealth to their children – inheritances will be as big on average for those born in the 80s as for those born in the 60s.  

The report also revealed striking differences between different parts of the country and different groups in their ability to move up income and wealth brackets. Men who grew up on free school meals end up earning £8,700 more at age 28 if they grew up in the highest mobility areas around London than if they grew up in the lowest mobility areas in the north of England. For women who grew up on free school meals, areas in and around London also do best for upward mobility, while the areas with weaker performance are spread across Yorkshire, the Midlands and the North-East. The difference in earnings at age 28 between the most and least upwardly mobile areas is £8,100. Education accounts for only a quarter of the variation in mobility across local authorities for men, and just under a half for women - twice the amount of differences in upward mobility compared with men.

Those with parents living in London also stood to inherit about twice as much as those in the north-east or Yorkshire and the Humber, reflecting the surge in property values in the capital in recent decades compared with weaker growth elsewhere. It highlights the difficulty for children from relatively low-income backgrounds in lower-wealth parts of the country will encounter in moving up in terms of total lifetime income.

There were also significant differences between ethnic groups. Even though children from most ethnic minority groups on free school meals out-perform their White peers in terms of educational outcomes, that advantage is reversed when some enter the labour market. Men from Pakistani, Black African and Black Caribbean backgrounds who grew up on free school meals earn less than White men who also had free school meals. There were also striking differences between ethnic groups, including a difference of £8,000 in the earnings of young men from a black Caribbean background who grew up on free school meals compared with someone from an Indian background.

Education accounts for only a quarter of the variation in mobility across local authorities for men, and just under a half for women - twice the amount of differences in upward mobility compared with men.

The report acknowledges that further research is needed as some of the differences in mobility between areas do not appear to be just down to education but also to differences in local labour markets, family stability and demographics of the local population. Some areas with higher economic activity rates, higher shares of married households and better-performing schools, for example, have better later-life earnings for men who grew up on free school meals. 

Commenting on the report, Chair of the Purpose Coalition and former Education Secretary, Rt Hon Justine Greening said: “This new research highlights that entrenched and systemic poor social mobility is still a feature in too many parts of the country. It simply doesn’t make sense to ignore the talent that exists everywhere in this country, economically or socially. Government should be working urgently and decisively to put social mobility back at the top of the political agenda, if we are to have any hope of an economic recovery. But every organisation, institution and business also needs to make sure that they are doing as much as they can to make opportunity available to the people in them and to the communities they serve.

”The Purpose Coalition has partnered with leading businesses, universities and NHS Trusts to help drive this agenda, by highlighting the best practice that is already making a difference and by developing innovative solutions to make opportunity accessible for everyone, no matter where they are from or what their background.”