For too long, talent has been held back by a ‘class ceiling’ which is less transparent and more resilient than many care to admit.
It is a ceiling which doesn’t just limit individual ambition; it limits our country’s potential. And nowhere is this more painfully obvious than in the towns and cities across Britain where working class people have spent decades pushing against barriers that should never have been there in the first place.
Speak to families in Oldham, Birkenhead, Sunderland or Coventry and you hear the same story – just told in different accents. Hardworking people doing everything right – getting up early, putting in the hours, raising their kids to believe in themselves and aim for the top – yet still find the ladder of opportunity is missing a few rungs.
For too many working-class families it isn’t a lack of aspiration, it’s a lack of access.
As the leader of a metropolitan borough, I hear these stories of frustration. The story of the young mechanic who wants to pursue a career in advanced engineering but the nearest skills training centre is two buses and a train ride away. Or the single mum who dreams of becoming a chef but can’t afford to take unpaid placements while juggling childcare.
Their ambition didn’t fail; it is the system which failed.
While the world has changed almost beyond recognition, far too many of those intransient class barriers have endured.
For many white working class young men, the challenge is brutally straightforward: the jobs their fathers and grandfathers relied on – semiskilled and unskilled work in factories, agriculture, transport, or construction – have changed either evolved or disappeared altogether. Automation, globalisation, and the shift to a service based economy has hollowed out the industries which towns across the country once relied on to provide stable wages and a sense of identity. What has replaced them is too often insecure work, low pay, and that feeling that the world has ‘moved on’ without them.
One young man who had just left school told me he already felt “left behind”. He’d tried agency and warehouse work, but the hours were unpredictable and the contracts short term. When work becomes precarious, confidence collapses with it.
The class ceiling is also robust in other ways. For many working class Asian families – Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Indian – the barriers are layered differently but equally complex.
Yes, there are institutional obstacles, but there are also cultural expectations and community pressures which shape or restrict the choices young people feel able to make.
Young people in some communities face different pressures: the expectation to contribute financially to an extended family network from an early age. When your household depends on your income, taking on years of study can feel like a luxury you can’t justify. These are not failures of culture; they are simply reflections of the economic insecurity and weight of responsibility working class families carry.
And across all communities – white, Asian, Black – the sense of not belonging can be strikingly similar. A young British Asian student described feeling “caught between two worlds” at university. And I heard from a white working class boy who said he felt “out of place” working in a corporate London office because of his accent. Different backgrounds, same message.
So, what can politicians do, especially those of us who care about our communities?
Breaking through requires more than just warm words. It demands a national mission to rebuild opportunity from the ground up. That means investing in skills and apprenticeships which lead to real careers. It means ensuring that good jobs are created in every region, not just in London and the South East’s golden triangle. It means driving further reforms to education so children in Blackpool, Birmingham and here in Oldham have the same chances as those from wealthier postcodes.
And above all, it means challenging the quiet prejudices – spoken and unspoken – which still shape who gets ahead. Jobs for the boys, not the girls. The accents or dialects mocked in boardrooms. The unpaid internships only the well off can afford. The assumption that leaders ‘look’ and ‘sound’ a certain way.
Look at what can happen when opportunity is genuinely opened up.
I’m proud of the tech entrepreneur from Chadderton who built a thriving business after accessing support from a local enterprise hub. The nurse from Royton who now has a leadership role in her NHS trust because someone finally saw her potential, the young female lawyer from Failsworth who is an inspiration to her sisters and friends in her community, or the former apprentice from Saddleworth who now runs his own engineering firm because someone invested in developing his skills.
These stories remind us that talent is everywhere; it is opportunity which is not.
Governments and regional authorities must take focused, practical action. That starts with rebuilding high quality vocational routes like modern apprenticeships, backing technical colleges, and employer led training so young people can access skills without needing to leave their homes and communities. It means targeted investment in towns that have lost traditional industries and backing sectors like green energy, digital and professional services, and advanced engineering and manufacturing to create stable, well paid jobs.
The private sector can step up too, guaranteeing paid placements and work experience rather than unpaid internships. And both national and local government must ensure that careers advice in schools is rooted in real opportunities, not outdated assumptions about who “belongs” in which professions.
If Britain is to thrive in the years ahead, we must first shatter the class ceiling. We cannot afford to waste the potential of millions of working class people who have felt unheard and unloved for far too long. When we do, then Great Britain will be fairer, stronger, and more united.
