Understanding Society’s Policy and Partnerships Unit has published a new briefing, Growth with Purpose: Joining Up the Productivity and Equity Imperative. It sets out evidence-based policy ideas for driving growth and productivity while also tackling the labour market inequalities which keep many in low wage, low skill work.
The government has said that stimulating growth is its top mission. Traditionally, that has been a separate goal to tackling inequality – and some argue that measures to tackle labour market inequalities are stifling growth. The briefing follows a ‘Policy Springboard’ event which aimed to change the debate by exploring the evidence on the issues together, rather than treating them as separate and opposite goals.
The event, organised with the Institute for Employment Studies and the Centre for Cities, brought together researchers, policymakers, and practitioners to examine the UK’s years of low growth and stagnant productivity, combined with persistent inequality. Over two days in September 2025, delegates heard from economists, social scientists, and other speakers including:
- Ben Willmott, Head of Public Policy and Practice at the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development
- Nicola Smith, Director of Policy for the Trades Union Congress
- Naomi Clayton, Director of the Institute for Employment Studies
The ‘springboard’ considered three themes: job quality and health, skills investment, and stalled job mobility – and identified a set of specific, practical recommendations, including:
- local ‘one-stop’ business and HR hubs – pooled resources to give SMEs access to shared HR expertise, management training, and business support
- skills and transport budgets devolved to local alliances of councils, employers, and colleges to invest in public transport, connecting deprived communities to jobs
- career development transparency in recruitment – job adverts which set out the potential for skills development and progression
- a Lifelong Learning Entitlement which allows workers to accumulate credits through short courses that fit around their lives.
Raj Patel, Understanding Society’s Associate Director, Policy and Partnerships, says: “If systematically supported by stakeholders and implemented well, these policies have the potential to address key structural barriers that hold people in low-paying, poor-quality jobs, and to boost mobility and productivity. They can also prepare low-paid workers for the disruption that AI is set to introduce.”
Findings and impactInforming PolicyEmploymentPolitics and social attitudesSocial mobility
