WEST Somerset is again at the bottom of the latest Social Mobility Index for England, which sets out the differences between where disadvantaged children grow up and the chances they have of doing well in adult life.

The index is at the heart of the Social Mobility Commission’s State of the Nation report published on Tuesday.

It ranks the social mobility prospects for someone from a disadvantaged background in all 324 local authorities – and West Somerset was last on the index, as in 2016.

The report said a stark social mobility postcode lottery exists in Britain today where the chances of someone from a disadvantaged background succeeding in life is bound to where they live.

It said there was a striking geographical divide with London and its surrounding areas pulling away from the rest of the country.

“Too many rural and coastal areas and the towns of Britain’s old industrial heartlands are being left behind economically and hollowed out socially,” said Alan Milburn, the Social Mobility Commission chairman.

“The country seems to be in the grip of a self-reinforcing spiral of ever-growing division … a less divided Britain will require a more redistributive approach to spreading education, employment and housing prospects across our country,” he said.

The report’s Social Mobility Index uses a range of 16 indicators for every major life stage, from children’s early years through to availability of top jobs, pay, housing, transport and more, to map the nation’s social mobility hot-spots and cold-spots.

West Somerset was one of three areas where there were poor social mobility prospects across all working life measures. In these areas, residents face high costs of housing alongside poor outcomes on jobs and pay.

Low paid jobs such as retail and food services are concentrated in particular areas and in West Somerset, an area where low pay is more concentrated, more than four in ten people earn less than the voluntary living wage compared with one in four nationally.

The average wage here is £312, less than half the £670 average weekly earnings in the best paid areas in England, such as Wandsworth.

Full report in the Free Press