Research by the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) has shown that England’s poorest communities lost more of their budget for public health services in the £900 million cuts, than the wealthiest areas, despite them having higher rates of disease.
The IPPR research found that £1 in every £7 of the £871.6m that has been cut from Whitehall’s public health grant to local councils in England over the last five years has been taken from budgets in the 10 poorest areas of the country. In contrast the 10 wealthiest places have lost public health funding equivalent to just £1 in every £46. Overall the most deprived areas have lost £120m while the least deprived have seen their budgets contract by just £20m.
It prompted warnings that the trend would widen the already stark differentials in life expectancy between those in well-off and poor areas. People in the latter are already more likely to develop and die from killer conditions such as cancer, lung disease, obesity, diabetes and liver disease.
Full story in the Guardian, 5 November 2019