Action needed to prevent young people leaving their Northern home towns

Those who move to London and the south-east still have much better job prospects and higher pay than those who stay, irrespective of their background, a new report by the Social Mobility Commission shows.

“Movers” will on average earn 33 per cent more than “stayers” and are 50 per cent more likely to have a degree, the research found.

Those who stay in their home towns tend to be form poorer backgrounds, live in deprived areas and tend to be constrained by financial barriers such as affordable housing.

Sammy Wright, a vice principal of a Sunderland school who sits on the Commission’s board as lead for schools and higher education, told the Yorkshire Post there were complex reasons why young people may choose to remain in their hometowns - including a lack of confidence and aspiration, evidence of which was found in the Commission’s visits to schools in Scarborough.

He said: “Yorkshire is a place of extremes - you have Leeds and York which are particularly well connected, and there’s exciting developments such as Channel 4 moving to Leeds and a real sense of a regional powerhouse, but across the Moors to the Coast you have areas where teachers are telling me students feel completely isolated. In Scarborough for example, realistically someone is not going to stay at home and go to university.”

“Students need to safe and confident in moving away, but equally we need to offer incitements to ensure they come back and spread what they have learnt.”

The study showed stayers are less likely to be in a professional or managerial job than movers and often find themselves in low-paid work with fewer prospects.

However, they often benefit from greater well-being and a sense of community and were more likely to be homeowners.

The report’s lead author Dafni Papoutsaki, from the Institute for Employment Studies, said: “While moving towards more prosperous areas is linked to higher pay, those who move to affluent city centres do not necessarily have a better quality of life than those who stay where they grew up.

“Policies that support both the individual and enhance infrastructure in less well-off areas can provide opportunities and a genuine choice of where to work and live, regardless of one’s background.”

The Commission said Covid-19 could transform internal migration by allowing more people to stay where they grew up and work at home.

Joint interim chair Sandra Wallace said: “In our combined efforts to rebuild the economy after the pandemic, we must mitigate the trade-offs involved in becoming more socially mobile and ensure that opportunity relies much less on geography. People should not have to move to prosper.”

Apprenticeships and Skills Minister Gillian Keegan said: “We want everyone, no matter where they live, to have the opportunity to gain the skills they need to progress. Many colleges are already working with their communities and local employers to make sure they get access to the right talent.

“To help level up opportunities, we’ve announced a significant new investment to help more people of all backgrounds to kick-start a high-quality apprenticeship. We’ll provide £2,000 to employers for each new apprentice they hire aged under 25 and £1,500 for each new apprentice they hire aged 25 and over.

“We are also investing £1.34 billion in education and skills training for adults through the Adult Education Budget, and continue to work with mayoral authorities that benefit from this funding to enable them to directly support local people, reduce skills shortages, and boost productivity and wellbeing in communities.”