The Gap Years

For most of the past 15 years the UK has experienced sustained economic growth. But inequalities have widened, and pockets of severe deprivation have developed because the benefits of growth have not been equally shared. Around 60 per cent of workless households are concentrated in just 40 districts of the UK. Many of the unemployed are unskilled males from ex-industrial areas such as Wales and parts of Northern England.

Efforts to regenerate deprived areas have focused largely on increasing levels of enterprise. Whether through people starting their own businesses or newly created jobs being taken up, enterprise is seen by policy-makers as a solution to the problem of unemployment. It is also seen as a way to boost productivity and wider economic growth. But how sure can we be that the enterprise programmes so favoured by Government are making a real difference?

This report presents the findings from research that set out to explore the relationship between enterprise and employment. It examines levels of enterprise across England and assesses whether the changes observed were associated with fewer people claiming benefits. The key findings are that enterprise is becoming less equally distributed across England; that claimants are becoming more concentrated in deprived areas; that growth at the local authority level does not usually lead to growth in the most deprived areas; and that enterprise creation is only part of the solution to deprivation.