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Research has found that people in the UK are becoming “sicker and poorer”, with health and wealth divides between regions getting worse.
Economic inactivity due to illness is at its highest level since records began, with 2.5 million working-age adults inactive due to their health, says the IPPR report, due out later this week.
The government’s stratification agenda is being seriously undermined, the report says, as new data shows that the north-east of England, Wales and Northern Ireland is twice as likely to take people out of work due to illness as London and the south-east. .
Labor said the report was “devastating” and showed the Conservatives had “completely failed to deliver, and inequality is in fact getting worse”.
Since Rishi Sunak took over as Prime Minister, the leveling up agenda promoted by Boris Johnson appears to have fallen down the list of political priorities, despite the Conservatives needing to save a chunk of “red wall” seats in the North and Midlands. The next election.
The IPPR report shows that the North-East, North-West, Yorkshire, East Midlands, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland have a significantly higher than average proportion of people of working age who are economically inactive due to poor health.
It is Northern Ireland where people are most likely to be out of work due to illness. A total of 10.8% of the Northern Irish population are too ill to work, compared with 4.4% in the South-East. The UK average is 6.1%.
All of these sectors have lower than average life expectancy and lower than average productivity per person, titled “Getting Better? Health and the UK Labor Market”, will be published on Wednesday.
Productivity levels in these places are well below those in London, where each person adds an average of £52,239 to the economy a year. This compares with £20,364 in the North-East, where productivity is lowest, and an average of £29,063 across the UK. The gap of more than £30,000 between London and the North-East has widened by £8,000 since 2012.
The North-East also has the lowest healthy life expectancy at 59 years compared to 66 years in the South-East, which has the highest healthy life expectancy. Healthy life expectancy is a measure of the number of years that people report that they lived in good health.
The report found that Covid-19 has worsened this regional disparity, with Wales, Scotland and every region in the north of England and the Midlands having longer Covid cases than the UK average.
Chris Thomas, head of the IPPR’s Commission on Health and Prosperity and author of the report, said: “The evidence is clear: a fairer country is a healthier country and a healthier country is a more prosperous country. Yet we are increasingly sicker and poorer as a country – deepening health inequalities and undermining national prosperity, particularly in the North and the poorest nations.
“If the government really wants to raise the bar for the country, it needs to do much more to make better health a keystone of the UK’s economic recovery. Better health is the best and clearest path to better lives, fairer economics and greater prosperity for all of us.”
One of the government’s leveling missions was to reduce the gap in healthy life expectancy between the most disparate areas by 2030, and by 2035 it would increase by five years. However, the new bill empowers the government to change its mission unilaterally.
Lisa Nandy, Shadow Leveling Up Secretary, said: “Three years ago the Conservatives were elected on a promise to ‘level up’ the UK, with narrowing health inequalities as one of the key aims. This damning report shows that the Tories have completely failed to deliver, and that inequality is in fact getting worse.
“For too long people and places have been written off across the UK. The next Labor Government will improve job support for all people and all places with the biggest ever transfer from Westminster, as well as the economically inactive and investing in our NHS.
Jordan Cummins, the CBI’s director of health, a member of the business group and commission, called on the government to intervene to prevent the decline in economic growth caused by the health inequality gap.
He said: “Businesses across the country care deeply about the health and resilience of the workforce and this needs to be made a priority for the Government. The consequence of losing millions from the labor market has a real human cost, but it also represents a drag on economic growth.
“Government intervention in partnership with industry will be crucial. Policymakers need to prioritize prevention, reducing harm once people get sick, investing in innovative treatments and partnering with businesses to accelerate progress and create healthier workplaces and more inclusive employment opportunities.”
Clare Bumbra, professor of public health at Newcastle University and another member of the IPPR commission, said: “The north has huge economic potential. But time and time again, research has shown that government failure to tackle health inequalities is holding it back. If ministers want to raise the bar, deliver better lives for all and ensure a productive economy, they must tackle health inequalities in the north of England and beyond.”
A government spokesman said: “We prioritized health and social care in the Autumn Statement, on top of previous record funding, to ensure people can access high quality care as soon as possible.
“We are supporting people with life-threatening costs with £1,200 in aid for the most vulnerable households and this year provided more than £3.4bn to local authorities in England to tackle problems including alcohol use, obesity and smoking.”
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