New approach needed to tackling structural inequalities, UCL experts say

Panellist Dr Olivia Stevenson (UCL Deputy Director of Public Policy) told the event that some progress had been made in tackling the UK’s structural inequalities over the past five years, but major inequalities in areas such as healthcare and education remained.

Structural inequalities are systematic disadvantages that are embedded in society and affect one group of people more than others. They include women earning less than men.

Dr Stevenson welcomed recent comments made by science minister Lord Vallance about channelling UK Government funding into projects which furthered its key goals or “missions”, including around equality of opportunity, and said universities stood ready to help ministers tackle these complex challenges.

In 2019, UCL Grand Challenges, UCL Public Policy, along with the Resolution Foundation think-tank, published Structurally Unsound – Exploring Inequalities: Igniting research to better inform policy, which took an in-depth look at the causes and consequences of inequality in the UK.

Earlier this year, the UCL teams published a follow-up report, Structurally Unsound Five Years On – Workshop report, which asked if Britain's inequality gap was widening and what policymakers could do to address it.

Dr Stevenson said: “The UK remains deeply unequal. Inequalities continue to shape health outcomes. 

“There is a direct relationship between the ability to pay your bills and your mental health just as there is for children between poverty rates and educational outcomes.

“A fundamental reframing of how we tackle inequalities as an investment in people and society is needed. We stand ready to help ministers tackle these complex challenges.

“Now is the opportunity to move beyond the sticking plaster papering over the cracks of social inequalities.”

A reframing was needed both in terms of how we effectively monitor existing policies and how we get to grips with complex issues, she said. Part of the problem was that some of the data around social inequalities was very poor, making it difficult to track progress in tackling them, she added.

Dr Stevenson highlighted new trends in structural inequalities since 2019 around work and disability and ill health. She said the number of people who were economically inactive due to ill health rose for 54 consecutive months from 2019 before falling a little in 2023, adding that this was an indication Government policy had failed.

Similarly, there were 10.2 million people of working age in the UK who reported they were disabled in 2023, representing 24 per cent of the working-age population.

And disabled jobseekers applied for 60 per cent more jobs than non-disabled people, she said.

Another panellist, Professor Imran Rasul (UCL Social & Historical Sciences), told the in-person and interactive webinar there was a “lack of good jobs” in the UK, by which he meant jobs “where people feel they are treated with dignity and have some certainty” as opposed to ones with high wages.

Prof Rasul pointed to racial disparities when it comes to work, such as how 15% of employed Pakistani men are taxi drivers and that for Black Caribbean men there was almost no improvement in real earnings from their mid-30s onwards.

He said: “If your first job is as a Deliveroo driver there aren’t that many rungs of the ladder you can move up.”

A third panellist, Alesha De-Freitas, Head of Policy, Advocacy and Research at the Fawcett Society, said: “People need to find the job that motivates them, but you also need to value those jobs so there is not a choice between economic stability and doing those jobs that make your heart sing.”

Prof Rasul said housing was another example of a UK structural inequality, describing the UK’s housing market as “among the most dysfunctional in the world” and saying the supply of housing stock was “much weaker” in the UK compared to America, Germany and France.

Earlier, Dr Stevenson said Black people in the UK were half as likely as white people to be homeowners.

By contrast, Prof Rasul said that when it came to the labour market, Indian men were one of the success stories. And in education, “most” groups of ethnic minority children were outperforming their white counterparts at GSCE level. The latter was in contrast to what was happening in France and Germany, he said.

Asked which areas he thought the Government could make the most progress on in terms of tackling social inequalities in the next five years, he said housing, education and skills.

The Government has unveiled five key goals or “missions” to rebuild Britain. They are around economic growth, clean energy, crime, equal opportunity and the NHS. The equal opportunities goal is specifically about reforming our childcare and education systems to make sure there is no class ceiling on the ambitions of young people in Britain.

Links

• Structurally Unsound – Exploring Inequalities: Igniting research to better inform policy
• Structurally Unsound Five Years On – Workshop report
• Dr Olivia Stevenson's academic profile 
• Professor Imran Rasul's academic profile

Image

• Dr Olivia Stevenson addresses the Resolution Foundation structural inequalities webinar in October 2024. Also pictured is Resolution Foundation Chief Economist Nye Cominetti. Credit: Siobhan Morris

For more information, please contact:

Nick Hodgson

+44 (0)7769 240209

nick.hodgson@ucl.ac.uk