New data tool equips businesses and local leaders to tackle regional social mobility barriers

• New tool helps understand the barriers to business entry, dynamism, and innovation across different parts of the UK.
• The Local Innovation and Economic Dynamism index equips policymakers and local leaders to tackle barriers to upward social mobility. 
• Evidence shows that entrepreneurship, business creation and economic dynamism can unlock opportunities for social mobility by generating higher productivity, faster growth and better-paying jobs.

Today the Social Mobility Commission has launched the Local Innovation and Economic Dynamism index.  The index, the first such tool in the UK, is designed to equip business, policymakers, government, and local leaders with the insights needed to improve innovation and dynamism and to tackle barriers to upward social mobility.

The UK faces severe regional economic inequality and remains one of the most geographically unequal economies in the G7, with vast disparities in wealth, infrastructure, and opportunity. 

This means that in East Yorkshire, the odds of climbing the income ladder are far lower than in Surrey or Sussex.  Even in Greater Manchester, rightly hailed as a devolution success story, productivity remains 35% below London.

Studies have shown that business entry and economic dynamism can unlock opportunities for social mobility by generating higher productivity, faster growth and better-paying jobs.

The tool, developed in partnership with The Productivity Institute at the University of Manchester.  It integrates comprehensive datasets from ONS, Orbis and the UK Research and Innovation Gateway to provide detailed breakdowns across all 361 Local Authorities, 11 Mayoral Combined Authorities, and UK regions and nations. It scores areas across 16 indicators, grouped into four core themes:

• Business dynamism – Measures business creation, growth and renewal, together with changes in local productivity.
• Labour market fluidity –  how active and adaptable local labour markets are, including employment, youth employment, skills and economic inactivity 
• Housing and earnings – Captures housing supply, earnings growth and the movement of people into and out of local areas.
• Innovation and knowledge –  Captures local capacity for innovation and knowledge creation. 

Rather than providing a static picture of existing wealth, the tool sheds light on parts of the country where innovation and dynamism is growing most. 

Alun Francis, Chair of the Social Mobility Commission said: 

The UK’s regional inequality is a profound barrier to social mobility. If we want to expand opportunity, we cannot just look at where wealth currently sits; we must look at where new opportunities are being created.  This is why the Social Mobility Commission has prioritised place based approaches to innovative economic growth. 

“However, these approaches need targets and measures.  This index provides a vital new lens for local leaders and policymakers. By focusing on dynamism the tool points out where progress is being made and encourages healthy competition between regions to demonstrate best practices in building the type of economies capable of fostering social mobility”.

Notes to editors

• Media contact: smcmedia@socialmobilitycommission.gov.uk
• Explore the interactive dashboard : https://dynamism.social-mobility.data.gov.uk/?tab=tab-map
• The Local Innovation and Economic Dynamism index was developed as a collaborative project between the Social Mobility Commission and the Productivity Institute at the University of Manchester.
• The tool combines data from ONS, Orbis and UK Research and Innovation Gateway
• The tool allows users to explore individual metrics, compare peer regions, and aggregate data for tailored spatial analysis.

Supporting statistics for reporting:

• The UK remains one of the most geographically unequal economies in the G7.
• Productivity in Greater Manchester sits 35% below that of London.
• Closing this productivity gap to the smaller gap seen between Lyon and Paris could add GVA by £13 billion annually.
• International data highlights the link between dynamism and mobility; in the US, dynamic states like Utah achieve significantly higher social mobility scores than lower-ranked states like West Virginia.
• The index provides comprehensive coverage of 361 Local Authorities, 11 Mayoral Combined Authorities and ITL3, and ITL1 levels across the UK.