Information from: The Local Government Association
Tackling Health Inequalities | Building fairer towns, cities and regions
The Government is being urged to introduce a national health inequalities strategy to tackle England’s widening health inequality gap, in a new report by the Local Government Association.
The report Building Fairer Towns, Cities, and Regions: Insights from Marmot Places, is being launched at the LGA’s Smith Square Debate Health inequalities – can councils close the gap?
It comes as councils across the country continue to lead the way in tackling health inequalities at a local level, with significant progress made in addressing the social determinants of health through the ‘Marmot Eight’ principles.
The report features innovative case studies from Marmot Places and underlines the need for national leadership to mirror and support local efforts. The debate will bring together leading voices in public health, government, and community advocacy to discuss how to bridge the health inequality gap and ensure everyone can lead a healthy life, regardless of their circumstances.
Grounded in addressing the social determinants of health such as housing, employment, and education, the Marmot approach has proven transformative.
“A Marmot Place recognises that health and health inequalities are mostly shaped by the social determinants of health (SDH): the conditions in which people are born, grow, live, work and age, and takes action to improve health and reduce health inequalities”
With more than 50 local areas across England, Wales, and Scotland designated as Marmot Places, councils are already demonstrating how collaborative, community-focused initiatives can deliver meaningful change.
However, as this report highlights, the scale of health inequalities demands a concerted national effort.
It follows a number of previous studies which have warned of the widening health inequality gap:-
- Figures from the King’s Fund showed that in 2020-22, healthy life expectancy in the North East was almost seven years shorter for males and six years shorter for females compared with the South East. People living in northern regions also spend higher proportions of their shorter lives in poor health.
- Meanwhile a study published by the Health Foundation found that based on current trends, inequalities in health will persist over the next two decades, with people in the 10 per cent most deprived areas expected to be diagnosed with major illness a decade earlier than people in the 10 per cent least deprived areas.
- A report by the UCL Institute of Health Equity confirmed widening inequalities of life expectancy between regions in England and within local authorities since 2010. It warned widening inequalities were associated with an average reduction in local authority spending power of 34 per cent.