2012 Olympics kids are UK's most upwardly mobile

Children who grew up near Olympic village have bragging rights among Britain's poorest

East Ham was part of the regeneration project for the 2012 London Olympics. Alamy

Children who grew up in East Ham during the 2012 Olympics are earning almost 50 per cent more than peers from the poorest parts of the UK today, a survey has found.

The London constituencies of East Ham and Stratford hosted the Olympic Games in 2012, and the construction of the Olympic Village there was expected to bring large-scale regeneration to the marginalised areas.

Now, East Ham’s poorest children are among the UK’s most socially mobile, followed by those from neighbouring Stratford and Bow, according the Sutton Trust’s Opportunity Index.

The annual survey tracks the education level and earnings of young people under 30 who were eligible for free school meals, to assess their opportunities.

The Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in London as seen from East Ham. Getty Images

In East Ham, 35 per cent of pupils who were eligible for free school meals had a degree by the age of 22, compared to 10 per cent in Newcastle Upon Tyne and Central West – the constituency with the lowest rankings in the survey.

Those aged 28 who grew up in East Ham earned almost 50 per cent more on average a year – £21,135 ($28,290) – than those in the lowest ranking constituency (£14,158). Forty-eight per cent of children in East Ham completed their A-levels with an average C grade, above the national average of 46.

About four out of five East Ham pupils who had completed their GCSEs (83 per cent) were in school, higher education or work, four percentage points above the national average, and 25 per cent higher than the more affluent constituency of Kensington and Bayswater.

“Disadvantaged young people growing up in East Ham, and Stratford and Bow have the best opportunity to become socially mobile in England," Erica Holt-White, research and policy manager at the Sutton Trust, told The National.

"Those eligible for free school meals achieve very well at GCSE, and we see young people progressing to university and reaching the top 20 per cent of earners at much higher rates than other young people from similar backgrounds in other areas of the country.

"Local investment" in East Ham and Stratford and Bow, as well as the "demographic of the constituency", were among the factors contributing to the high rankings, she said.

The opening ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic Games in Stratford. Getty Images

Yet the survey also showed that young people in London were more likely to move out of their constituency than those outside London, against the “traditional view” of migration towards the capital.

Within the orbit of the Olympic Village in Hackney, the proportion of working adults who are university graduates in Woodberry Down and Manor House leapt from more than one third (36.9 per cent) in 2011 to about two thirds (67.8 per cent) – more than anywhere else in England and Wales.

“London and the East of England also have the highest rates for disadvantaged young people moving elsewhere by the age of 28, at 13 per cent compared to just 6 per cent of those from the North-east," said Carl Cullinane, director of research and policy at the Sutton Trust.

The survey revealed a "a startling picture of inequality of opportunity" across England, according to Nick Harrison, chief executive of the Sutton Trust. The training and educational pathways available to disadvantaged young people within their own constituencies determined how they would fare later on.

"The life chances of disadvantaged young people remain strongly tied to where they grow up," he said. "If the government genuinely wants to break down barriers to opportunity, we need serious investment in education and economic opportunities in the ‘left behind’ parts of the UK. Failing to act is damaging the life changes of too many of the next generation."