A campaign launched at the House of Lord has put leadership, productivity and class under the spotlight. Some of the UK’s most senior financial services leaders, regulators and policymakers gathered at the House of Lords to launch Making the Invisible Visible – a major new campaign challenging the invisible class barriers that continue to shape progression into senior leadership across British business and financial services.
The campaign is led by Progress Together, the industry body established following the government-backed Taskforce on socio-economic diversity in financial services.
The launch comes at a particularly sensitive moment for British business leadership following fresh research suggesting investors still perceive privately educated CEOs as a “safer bet” despite no evidence of stronger performance outcomes – reigniting debate around class, confidence signals and meritocracy in leadership.
At the same time, firms are facing mounting pressure around:
- productivity and growth
- AI transformation
- workforce disruption
- skills shortages
- and future leadership pipelines
Campaign leaders argue the sector can no longer afford to overlook high-performing talent because people do not “look”, “sound” or “fit” traditional leadership expectations.
Progress Together’s data – covering more than 210,000 employees across UK financial services – shows employees from lower socio-economic backgrounds continue to progress more slowly into senior leadership despite no link to job performance.
The campaign reframes the issue not simply as diversity or fairness, but increasingly as:
- a competitiveness issue
- a productivity issue
- a leadership issue
- and a future workforce issue
