Mastercard's Inclusive Growth Score™ addresses UK levelling up missions

The UK government’s levelling up agenda puts forth 12 missions for policymakers to address, including education, skills, housing, living standards, and more, with a common underlying thread of boosting economic growth across the whole country, not just in a few places. The 21 metrics of the Inclusive Growth Score, a platform from the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth, align well with these missions, providing annual, hyper-local data points that may inform a targeted approach in bringing opportunity, investment, and resources where they are currently lacking, and a consistent way to track progress over time. 

As part of the devolution deals, which are a key pillar of the UK government’s levelling up strategy, we found there are opportunities to address the economic situation in many regions and local authority districts (LADs) such as York and North Yorkshire, where small business representation has declined, there are fewer new businesses, and overall low commercial diversity. The analysis also revealed opportunities to improve education accessibility and reduce the level of unemployment benefits claimants, and also be targeted and tailored in the approach to improving the housing landscape.

Decision-makers across the United Kingdom can add the Inclusive Growth Score, a free and publicly available platform, to their tool belt as they continue to push for inclusive growth.