Economic Inequality

Lord Greaves Excerpts

Wednesday 23rd October 2013 Lords Chamber

Asked by

[Lord Greaves]

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what proposals they have to reduce the level of economic inequality.

[Lord Newby (LD)]

My Lords, income inequality in the UK is now at its lowest level since 1986. The Government are committed to ensuring that all families benefit from the return of growth to the economy and maintain that the best route out of poverty and the best way of reducing inequality is for households to move into work.

[Lord Greaves (LD)]

My Lords, last week we had the report of the Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission, State of the Nation 2013, under the leadership of Mr Alan Milburn and the noble Baroness, Lady Shephard. It concludes that:

“Britain remains a deeply divided country. Disadvantage still strongly shapes life chances. A balanced economic recovery, between different parts of Britain, is not currently within reach”.

Do the Government agree with the broad conclusions of the report that, if we want more social mobility, that has to go hand in hand with a more equal society?

[Lord Newby]

My Lords, the Government agree with the broad conclusions of the report. As the noble Lord says, there are major problems of deep-seated, regional inequalities and imbalances. However, the Government are committed to tackling these, which explains why we have committed more than £2.6 billion to the regional growth fund, why we are committed to High Speed 2 and why apprenticeships, which now stand at 850,000 in the last academic year—some 370,000 more than in the last year of the Labour Government—are taking place largely outside London and the south-east.