Every few years there is a that the UK remains a vastly unequal country, where a person’s life chances are significantly determined by where they live. The latest evidence comes from a population study looking at health disparities over many years between the north and south of England.
It found that death rates in young and middle-aged adults are higher in the north than the south and the health gap between these regions is widening. More broadly, the health gap equates to around 1.2 million more deaths before the age of 75 in the north of England than in the south than you would expect since 1965, and his colleagues.
The study also claims that this “excess mortality” has “risen alarmingly” among those aged between 25 and 44 since the mid-1990s. It blames “profound and worsening structural inequality” and calls for “more equitable economic, social and health policies”.
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Powerless powerhouse
Back in 2014, then chancellor George Osborne stood in Manchester’s Museum of Science and Industry and the need for a “Northern Powerhouse”, with fast transport links and modern commerce, to combat this trend. The aim, as Osborne put it in his speech, was to support “a collection of northern cities sufficiently close to each other that combined they can take on the world”.
It was too little too late. Tired of their neglect at the hands of Westminster and the political establishment, many former industrial towns in the north of England voted to leave the European Union in the 2016 referendum.
And so just two years after his visit to Manchester and the announcement of his intention (however flimsy in practice) to revitalise the region, Osborne, who campaigned to remain in the EU, was out of a job.
Since then his plan has gradually slipped down the political agenda, as thoughts have turned to the country’s Brexit strategy.
Shrinking towns
It is commonly assumed that a large part of the problem is jobs – both a lack of them and of quality roles. Meaningful employment’s links to good health are well documented. Reliant in the past on manufacturing and heavy industry, as those jobs migrated overseas they were often replaced by low paid and precarious work in call centres and warehouses.
The UK’s fastest growing cities between 1981 and 2013 . Its fastest shrinking towns were all in the north.
Buchan’s study suggests that, even during periods of economic growth, the north has been lagging behind the south. As the report points out, even from the mid-1990s – a period of strong economic growth – “northern excess mortality increased by 25 percentage points in the 25-34 age group”. The spoils of growth failed to reach many in this group.
This suggests that a wider economic restructuring is called for, which not only boosts the overall economy but distributes the gains far more equitably based on these findings. The cost of doing nothing will be more despair and further depressing reports like this one.
Inaction also risks more political shocks like Brexit. If anything persuades the government to take this more seriously, it is probably this.
