Making Equal

Graeme Atherton is Associate Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Regional Engagement of the University of West London and Vice-Principal of Ruskin College, Oxford.Peter John is Vice-Chancellor of the University of West London and Principal of Ruskin College, Oxford. He was awarded a CBE in 2020 for his outstanding services to higher education.

• Foreword; Peter John Chapter 1. Introduction: Inequality and breaking with the norm; Graeme Atherton Section 1 – Creating opportunity from birth Chapter 2. The birth of injustice; Philip Collins Chapter 3. ‘It’s human capital, stupid’; David Blunkett Chapter 4. The coordination conundrum: Three core policy principles for post-16 education and training; James Robson Chapter 5. Inequality and lifelong learning; Jonathan Michie Chapter 6. “Social mobility and the Ministry of Poverty”; John Bird Section 2 – Higher education – the driver of growth and opportunity Chapter 7. Higher education expansion as a growth strategy; Steve Coulter Chapter 8. Shaping higher education: Driving economic prosperity and sustainability through engineering and technology; Hilary Leevers Chapter 9. Equal opportunities, equal outcomes and higher education: Choice or circumstance?; Peter John Chapter 10. Leading in place: The value of a holistic approach to driving social mobility and regional development; Kathryn Mitchell, Larissa Allwork, and Gaynor Davis Section 3 – Making places matter Chapter 11. A question of scale: Refocusing policy towards tackling neighbourhood level inequality; Matt Leach Chapter 12. Pulling together, a cross-sector collaboration approach to tackling inequality; Ian Taylor Chapter 13. Investing in regional equality: How are international success factors playing out in the UK?; Abigail Taylor Section 4 – Growth, the economy and the role of business Chapter 14. Why a failure to address inequality fails us all; Nigel Wilcock Chapter 15. The role of co-operative growth in reducing inequality in Britain; Daniel Monaghan Chapter 16. Social mobility and business regulation; Andy Boucher Chapter 17. Tech for good: From disparity to opportunity; Nimmi Patel Chapter 18. Britain’s 21st Century Challenge: Employers Must Drive Social Mobility Too; Justine Greening Section 5 – Labour and inequality – past, present and future Chapter 19. Labour’s long march for equality: A continuing incompleteness, a continuing struggle; Hilary Armstrong Chapter 20. Inequality Street? Realism and Riots in the 2024 UK General Election and After; Rupa Huq Chapter 21. Labour: Past, present, future and the 2024 general election; Jon Cruddas Chapter 22. Conclusion; Graeme Atherton

Levelling Up is widely recognized failed as policy in the UK. ‘Making Equal: New Visions for Opportunity and Growth’ considers what lessons can be learnt and what might be done differently with cogent views from across the political spectrum. A century ago something similar happening in the UK, the 1920s were time of failure, but by the 1930s the idea that Special Areas needed an Act of Parliament to help them was accepted. In these pages we may be seeing history and consensus repeat.