Read: ‘Jaw-dropping’ fall in life expectancy in poor areas of England, report finds

Boris Johnson’s post-Covid “levelling up” agenda will fail unless it addresses declining life expectancy and deteriorating social conditions in England’s poorest areas, a leading authority on public health has warned, as he published figures showing the impact of the pandemic on Greater Manchester.

Sir Michael Marmot revealed the coronavirus death rate in Greater Manchester was 25% higher than the England average during the year to March, leading to “jaw-dropping” falls in life expectancy and widening social and health inequalities across the region over the past year.

The deteriorating health equalities picture in the region and across similarly deprived areas of the country was a result of longstanding, avoidable socioeconomic inequities and ethnic disadvantage, exacerbated by a decade of spending cuts and amplified by Covid and the effect of prolonged lockdowns, he said.

Marmot proposed a “moral and practical” plan for government investment in jobs, housing, local services and education to tackle longstanding health and social inequalities in Manchester and similar areas. “If government is serious about levelling up, here’s how to to it,” he said.

Ministers’ ambition to level up regional differences has been criticised for overly focusing on large economic infrastructure projects. Marmot’s proposals suggest the focus should be widened to address the social conditions that cause inequalities at community level. “Levelling up really ought to be about equity of health and wellbeing,” he said.

The findings of the Greater Manchester report were “generalisable” across other deprived areas of England, added Marmot, saying: “It’s pretty bad for life chances to live in poorer parts of London, too. Levelling up shouldn’t only be about the Midlands and the north-east and the north-west [of England]. Deprived parts of London need attention as well.”

Marmot is the director of the UCL Institute for Health Equity and an eminent public health expert known for his landmark work on the social determinants of population health. Just prior to the pandemic he published research linking UK austerity cuts to the first falls in life expectancy for more than 100 years.

His latest report shows life expectancy in north-west England fell in 2020 by 1.6 years for men and 1.2 years for women, compared with 1.3 years and 0.9 years across England as a whole. Within the region, life expectancy dipped most sharply in the poorer areas. Such a rapid decline was in life expectancy terms “enormous”, Marmot said.

Read the full story in The Guardian.

Good health and well-being is one of 14 Levelling Up Goals launched to set out clear objectives for the UK's Levelling Up challenge.