A report from the Northern Health Science Alliance says that people in England’s most deprived neighbourhoods work longer hours than people in the rest of the country, but live shorter lives, and spend more years in ill health. The cost in lost productivity amounts to an estimated £29.8bn a year.
The Alliance is a health and life sciences partnership between NHS trusts, universities and Academic Health Science Networks in northern England. Its findings were released in a joint report with the All-Parliamentary Party Group for ‘left behind’ neighbourhoods.
They used Understanding Society data to assess mental health in ‘left behind’ neighbourhoods (LBNs) compared to the rest of England, and found:
- mental health scores in April-May 2020, during the first wave of the pandemic, were worse in LBNs compared to the national average
- LBNs experienced a bigger fall in mental health, on average, than the rest of England.
The Alliance says the 225 LBNs they identified are “typically located in post-industrial areas in the midlands and north of England, as well as coastal areas in the south east”. These areas are in the top 10% of the Index of Multiple Deprivation.
Their report suggests ways the government could tackle these problems, saying: “Investment in the social infrastructure which LBNs lack is a key policy solution. It can transform the physical and social environment in ‘left behind’ neighbourhoods and strengthen residents’ capacity to address the health disparities and other poor outcomes that they experience, with long-term benefits for the local community and for the country as a whole.”
Read the Northern Health Science Alliance announcement and report
Health and wellbeingIncome and expenditureSocial mobility
