English Translation
It seems as he is not going to get ahead.
FYI: We say うだつが上がらない (not get ahead), but we don’t say うだつが上がる (get ahead). We also don’t say うだつを上げない as a transitive verb. I don’t know why, but it’s just as it is.
This is a common idiom derived from an architecture jargon. うだつ is a sort of decoration put on traditional Japanese roofs of rich people’s houses. You can see the illustration of うだつ here.