How business as a force for good will help us overcome the COVID Opportunity Gap

Businesses have already been a real force for good during the coronavirus crisis. Now they can play a real leadership role through the coming challenging months ahead as Britain deals with its aftermath. There will be difficult days ahead, that’s inevitable, but how we respond to the challenges is a choice we can make.

The impact of coronavirus on our economy is already like the impact of coronavirus on children’s education – uneven. Different people and places will face very different impacts. It’s why through the Social Mobility Pledge we have looked at how existing social mobility coldspots are getting affected by the way coronavirus is hitting jobs and the economy. For some areas it’s a double hit effect. They were already a social mobility cold spot and now coronavirus disproportionately hurts their local economy and makes their challenge even greater.

Just as they did in the early part of the coronavirus crisis, Britain’s smartest business leaders must continue to ask themselves what they can do to be part of the national effort helping Britain bounce back from coronavirus. Over the last two months of lockdown, when these companies were asked what they were doing to help, they could talk genuinely and convincingly about the steps they were taking. How can they also be part of the solution to the new challenges of the opportunity gap and social mobility crisis that Britain faces.

People want to see businesses again set out how they can help more broadly and how they can continue to show being a force for good. The COVID Opportunity Gap evidence base the Social Mobility Pledge will be setting out next week will help businesses understand where the greatest challenges lie and therefore where help is needed most. A number of companies – including 10% of the FTSE 100 are working with me to build Opportunity Action Plans, which can reflect this analysis to make sure they can show not only what their impact can be through their plans, but that they’ve also built in careful thinking about where that impact can be most valuable.

It’s going to be crucial work, and I hope that all companies will put similar plans in place.

That’s the choice now to be made. But if we have the right choices by Britain’s business leaders, it can make all the difference to communities and people most in need in the coming months.

Rt Hon Justine Greening

Founder, Social Mobility Pledge

Former Secretary of State for Education, Minister for Women and Equalities, Secretary of State for International Development, Secretary of State for Transport, Economic Secretary to the Treasury