Read: An essential ingredient for economic recovery: The new Prime Minister needs to take action on the health of the nation

As the Conservative leadership race reaches its final stage, Rishi Sunak or Liz Truss will start their new job with a raft of competing priorities on their desk.

 Economic recovery and the cost of living will be at the top. But we still await a detailed plan from both the candidates on the flagship Conservative policy of levelling up the country. Spreading opportunity to those communities where it has traditionally been in short supply is essential to economic recovery.

With governments’ fondness for ministerial musical chairs, it’s not yet clear how much change we will see in the top jobs. Reducing inequalities has been pressing for decades and the people affected cannot afford for this to be put on the back burner while, yet again, new ministers and their advisers settle in.

Health equity should be central to any government’s ambition to achieving a fairer society where everyone is able to contribute economically and socially. The new Secretary of State for Health, Steve Barclay, has wasted no time in tackling one much-discussed inequality – the decades of entrenched gender health inequality experienced by women. The new strategy will encompass research, training and treatment and aims to ensure that the system as a whole works better for women.

A good start, but there is much more to do. Much of the health inequality we see - evident from the cradle to the grave - is found not just in our most deprived regions but also in communities in the middle of some of our most prosperous cities. The origins are complex, often with no single root cause. It can be a result of poverty, poor education, low-paid employment and unemployment, poor housing conditions and social isolation. But its impact on people’s lives is becoming ever clearer – unacceptable and still unaddressed. It frames the questions that a new Prime Minister and their ministerial health team will need to answer.

Why does how long you live depend on where you live? Communities with the lowest life expectancy are typically located in urban areas in the North. A man in Kensington and Chelsea can expect to live until 95, one in Blackpool until 68 – a gap of 27 years. Just as importantly, people from less privileged communities live less years in good health.

What action can and will the Government take to prevent people from ethnic minorities having poorer experiences in diagnosis and treatment, with worse outcomes? The health of those from Pakistani and Bangladeshi backgrounds, for example, is equivalent to that of White people who are at least 20 years older. Why is that inequality especially evident in maternity and post-natal care which sees women from Black ethnic background four times as likely to die as women from White backgrounds and those from an Asian background are almost twice as likely?

Will there be a robust strategy to deal with obesity which governments continue to duck? As we approach the late 2020s there will be more obese people in the country than those of a healthy weight. Research from Cancer Research UK shows that in 2019 35% of people living in the most deprived areas of England – predicted to rise to 46% by 2040 - were obese, compared to 22% in the least deprived areas.

How will the obvious impact of deprivation, including obesity, on rates of cancer and other serious diseases be challenged? If you live in a disadvantaged area, you are more likely to have to wait longer for your diagnosis and treatment, and your outcome is likely to be worse. People from poorer areas in England are 50% more likely than those from wealthier areas to be diagnosed with cancer through emergency routes such as A & E rather than through primary care.

How, with a growing elderly population, will the Government address the problem of those living with dementia and the impact on their families? Dementia is the only disease in the top ten causes of death without an effective treatment.  Research from Queen Mary’s Wolfson Institute, funded by Barts’ Charity, found that 21.5% of dementia deaths in 2017 were attributable to deprivation.

Finally, but by no means least, will there be help to tackle the growing mental health crisis which is taking its biggest toll on the least advantaged children and adults in our society? Figures show that mental health referrals hit record levels of 4.3m last year in England, with 1.4m waiting to start treatment.

These are huge challenges which were all exacerbated by the pandemic and are almost all likely to get even worse as a result of the financial and social pressures of the cost of living crisis. Poor health has an impact not only on our health and social care system but also on individuals’ wellbeing and prosperity. With persistent ill-health in England’s most left behind communities costing the country almost £30 billion a year in lost productivity, our new Prime Minister cannot afford to ignore the issue. The first step should be to publish the long-awaited White Paper on health disparities which will hopefully herald an era of decisive and robust action. It’s time to stop articulating the problems and have real and purposeful actions in place.