IPPR, the Institute for Public Policy Research, says in a new report that the UK is “getting poorer and sicker” while also facing challenging economic times, in a report making extensive use of Understanding Society data.
The Institute says the UK economy is expected to shrink in 2023, with inflation high and household spending power falling. “At the same time,” it says, “population health is going backwards. After rapid progress on life expectancy in the 20th century, the UK has rising rates of death and impairment”.
The report is the first from IPPR’s Commission on Health and Prosperity, set up in April 2022 “to explore how good health can be the foundation for a fair and prosperous economy” after the Covid pandemic.
It uses Understanding Society data to look at issues such as:
- the impact of physical and mental ill health on earnings
- illness and job satisfaction
- leaving work due to poor health
- regional differences
- how better health could help to tackle inequalities.
IPPR is proposing that the government introduces a Health and Prosperity Act: a new piece of primary legislation with three main components:
- a ‘healthy lives mission’ to make the UK the healthiest country in the world over the next 30 years, and to increase life expectancy
- a new legislative body, the Committee on Health and Prosperity, to advise on the mission and hold government accountable, and a ‘what works’ centre to generate evidence on improving public health
- investment through a health creation fund, to put evidence into practice, and a health investment bank to fund innovations.
The report’s summary concludes: “We do not suggest these changes in government architecture and overall approach to health policy would constitute a silver bullet; the specifics of the policy programme will be critical. Instead, we contend the above proposals have the power to shift the default in the UK from apathy on actively pursuing good health to one where policy implementation, innovation and strategic investment is the norm.”
Health and wellbeingMoney and finances
