Health inequality is everyone’s business – government must act across every department
Dr Allison Gardner argues that tackling Britain’s widening health divide demands stronger legislation, clear accountability and co-ordinated action across every government department – not just the NHS
This article has been funded by Health Equals, the UK’s campaign for tackling health inequalities.
The journey from Stoke-on-Trent to Westminster is little more than two hours, but the difference in life expectancy is far greater. Between the neighbourhood in my constituency with the lowest life expectancy, and the areas of Westminster with the highest, the gap is a shocking 13 years. Even within Stoke-on-Trent, life expectancy can differ by nine years depending on your postcode.
This gap isn’t just a figure on a spreadsheet, it represents decades of growing health inequalities, with wide-ranging consequences for our economy, and is holding people back from living long, happy lives.
And right now, the gap between the health of the UK’s richest and poorest is wider than ever, with a staggering 18-year life expectancy gap. This gap has been starkly illustrated by the Health Equals Shelf Life campaign showing how lifespans are reduced depending on your postcode.
And of course, without health in every postcode, we have no hope of growth in every postcode.
In my local area of Stoke-on-Trent, the impact on the health of the working age population is equally concerning. Healthy life expectancy at birth has fallen by 6.6 per cent for men, from 59 years in 2012-14 to just 55 a decade later.
And for women, the picture is even worse, a 9.6 per cent decline in healthy life expectancy from 59.2 years in 2012-14 to 53.5 years in 2022-2024.
This feeds into higher economic inactivity, including the growing crisis of young people with health problems neither earning nor learning.
I was proud to stand on a manifesto that promised to halve that gap in healthy life expectancy; to raise the healthiest generation ever through a cross-government health mission, and a shift to prevention.
As Health Equals’ Shelf Life campaign shows, health inequality isn’t a simple North-South divide; it intersects across multiple issues, such as gender, ethnicity and socioeconomic status.
It can’t just be left to the NHS to pick up the pieces. Our health is shaped by the world around us – the food we eat, the money in our pockets, the air we breathe and the home we live in. In other words, every part of government has an opportunity to influence people’s health.
The Health Bill is a real opportunity to zoom out and see the bigger picture, because health is about so much more than just what happens after you cross the GP threshold.
That is why I am calling for the Health Bill to be strengthened so that it places a statutory duty on government not only to reduce inequalities in NHS access and outcomes, but also to improve the nation’s health through a wider, cross-government approach.
My proposed changes would require the Secretary of State to publish a cross-government strategy for health improvement and tackling inequalities, with clear accountability for delivery across all government departments; aligning national and regional responsibilities and ensuring every level of government is working towards shared objectives and targets.
Changing the law won’t magic away the entrenched inequalities overnight, but as Prime Minister Andy Burnham has said, we need to rewire the state towards prevention and set up every local area to be able to take action that is tailored to their problems.
The changes to the Bill are a crucial part of this mission.
I want to be able to take those journeys between my constituency and Westminster with renewed hope, knowing that improving health has become a responsibility shared across government, in every postcode I travel through.
To check the life expectancy in your postcode, visit www.healthequals.org.uk. To request a briefing on the Health Bill as it enters the House of Lords, please email [email protected].
