The Inclusive Growth Commission in the UK recently published the findings of an enquiry into how the UK can achieve inclusive growth. The Design Council’s article about the findings outlines the key challenges in the report as:
- Creating high wage, high value-add jobs across the country
- Designing resilient inclusive places
- Creating governance systems fit for the modern era
There is an emerging global consensus that inequality not only has a social cost, but that it also hampers long-term economic performance and the productive potential of people and places. This would include mature age workers and people with disability.
You can see the full article by the Design Council, How Design Can Help Inclusive Growth. The Inclusive Growth Commission is an independent organisation set up to understand and identify practical ways to make local economies more economically inclusive and prosperous. Download their final report from their website.
Editor’s comment: It is interesting to note there is such a thing as an Inclusive Growth Commission. While the Design Council article does not specifically mention universal design, it is alluded to in the second point above. This emphasises the importance of thinking about designing for inclusion alongside other factors. Too often inclusion is treated as an add-on factor instead of integral to the project. Jobs, healthy lifestyles, inclusion and economics are all impacted by design processes and design outcomes. This is particularly the case at the local level where real lives are lived. The helicopter view of planning needs to be questioned. Our lives are not an abstract construct.