The power of reading for pleasure to boost children’s life chances

COMMENT As the UK recovers from Covid-19, literacy is vital in ensuring future generations prosper. You might wonder why the chief executive of a real estate company is talking about literacy and getting kids to read books for pleasure? Well, not only is reading a personal pleasure, but there’s an economic benefit to us supporting this too. Our new research with WPI Strategy shows that unlocking the potential of reading for pleasure could support 1.1m children to get better GCSEs and boost GDP by up to £4.6bn per year within a generation. Supporting education is not just the right thing to do, it also makes business sense. It helps people discover their potential and develop key skills, securing the best possible workforce for the future. Through our 10-year partnership with the National Literacy Trust, we have seen the impact of literacy and reading for pleasure on people’s lives. Over the past decade, the partnership has inspired more than 55,000 children from lower-income backgrounds to develop a life-changing love of reading, distributing over 167,000 books; for many of these children, the first they own. Now, our research with WPI quantifies its economic value. If all school-age children in the UK read for pleasure every day, WPI modelling shows the number achieving five good GCSEs by the age of 16 could increase by 1.1m within 30 years. Using Department for Education research that looks at GCSE results, productivity and higher earnings, WPI calculated that this would boost their average lifetime earning potential by £57,500. What’s more, the analysis shows that after 30 years, this reading for pleasure shift could add as much as £4.6bn a year to the UK’s GDP. This is clear evidence that, in the wake of the pandemic, education must be at the heart of the UK’s social and economic recovery. And that is exactly why the chief executive of a listed REIT is talking about reading books. Our partnership with the National Literacy Trust has achieved significantly more than we expected when we started out 10 years ago, and provides a potential blueprint for how communities, charities and businesses can work together for mutual benefit. Our places thrive when the communities that we are a part of also prosper. So, we focus on understanding issues and opportunities in the communities around our places, and concentrating our efforts collaboratively to make the biggest impact. As a long-term investor and placemaker, we are uniquely positioned to bring people and organisations together around common goals, pooling resources, ideas and talent for maximum impact. Our partnership with the National Literacy Trust is the longest partnership between a business and a charity to improve literacy in the UK, and is testament to how collaboration between charities, businesses and communities can transform educational outcomes. I hope the report inspires many more cross-sector partnerships that unlock the tremendous potential of reading for pleasure as now we have clear evidence of how it can improve children’s life chances, earnings and the overall GDP of the country. Together we can achieve so much more.   Simon Carter is chief executive of British Land