A record number of Britons are not economically active because of illness – 2.5 million British citizens are not able to work, says The Guardian. At the same time the health and wealth gap between regions in the country is widening, despite the “equalisation” programme proposed by former prime minister Boris Johnson.
Britons are becoming “sicker and poorer”, with health and wealth gaps between regions of the UK only widening over time, The Guardian reports citing the Institute for Public Policy Research.
Research by the London think-tank has found that economic inactivity due to ill-health is at its highest level since records began. Currently 2.5 million British adults of working age are inactive due to ill-health.
Residents of the North East of England, Wales and Northern Ireland are twice as likely as those in London and the South East to lose their jobs because of illness. In the North East and North West of England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, the share of people who are not economically active due to ill-health is much higher than average.
For example, it is people in Northern Ireland who are most likely to be out of work because of ill-health. A total of 10.8% of people in the region are unable to work due to ill-health, compared with 4.4% in the south east of England. The UK average is 6.1%.
All of these regions also have lower life expectancy and lower average productivity per person. Whereas in London each person brings in an average of £52,239 a year to the economy, in the North East, where productivity is lowest, the figure is £20,364 and the UK average is £29,063. Since 2012, this gap of over £30k between London and the North East of England has increased by £8k.
The North East also has the lowest healthy life expectancy, at 59 years there. The South East has the highest healthy life expectancy at 66 years.
“The evidence is increasingly clear: a fairer country is a healthier country and a healthier country is a more prosperous country. But we are getting sicker and poorer as a country – deepening health inequalities are undermining national prosperity,” the publication quotes study author Chris Thomas as saying.
Thomas called better health the “best and most sustainable” route to “a better life, a fairer economy and greater prosperity” for the UK as a whole.
The opposition Labour Party called the findings “disastrous”. According to shadow ‘equalisation’ secretary Lisa Nandy, they show the Conservatives are “utterly failing in their responsibilities and inequality is actually getting worse”.
As The Guardian notes, since Rishi Sunak took over as prime minister, the equalisation agenda proposed by former prime minister Boris Johnson seems to have fallen off the political agenda. This is despite the fact that in the next election the Conservative Party will need to defend the votes they have won in Northern England and the Midlands, constituencies that historically gravitate towards Labour.
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