Bridging the gulf between North and South is like reunifying Germany after the end of the Cold War, says Prof Dominic Harrison, Director of Public Health and Wellbeing at Blackburn with Darwen council.
He argues that truly levelling up in Britain would require a Herculean effort on the scale of that launched 30 years ago to bring together poorer Communist East and richer capitalist West Germany to create today’s European powerhouse.
He says: “That took them many years and West Germany had to invest loads in East Germany and now by miles and miles they are Europe’s bankers.
“Levelling up the North, because of the differences we’ve got, is going to be like reuniting Germany.”
Germany spent the equivalent of £71billion a year between 1990 and 2014 on reunification. The UK’s levelling up fund is a measly £4.8bn in total, according to the Centre for Cities think-tank.
Prof Harrison calls for a 25-year plan backed by serious money and genuine devolution for the North.
In his Lancashire patch, life expectancy for men is 76.3, three years less than England’s 79.3 average, while for women it is 80.3 instead of 83.1. Prof Harrison says: “We are 20 years behind the average England life expectancy in Blackburn with Darwen.
“One narrative is levelling up. The other narrative is left behind.”
He blames deep-seated inequalities, such as a pay gap of £4 an hour between North and South, combining to make life tougher, with economic hardships ruining health.
He says: “What companies pay you, how well you’ve been educated, what your transport links are – if you go through those drivers of inequality, if you live in the North you are less invested in than in the South.
“We need to reinvest in a whole range of different things.
“Inequality isn’t a single disease. It’s more like a syndrome and it requires a redistribution of the country’s resources.”
He appeals for investment in people, not just infrastructure.
He says: “It needs to be more sophisticated. We need to regenerate and level up people.”
Create fairer society to close health gap
By Sir Michael Marmot, Director of University College London Institute of Health Equity
It has not been good for your health to live in the North West, North East, or other deprived parts of England.
The conditions in which people are born, grow, live, work and age are the key determinants of health.
If social conditions are poorer, health will be poorer.
Until 2010, life expectancy was increasing by about one year every four years but since then, life expectancy in the most deprived 10% of areas has declined.
Austerity, regressive cuts in local government and rises in child poverty have all contributed and the pandemic has made health inequalities worse. Covid-19 mortality was 25% higher in the North West than the English average. We urge the government to act on our Build Back Fairer reports.
Give every person the best start in life – education, good employment and working conditions.
Make sure people have enough money to lead a healthy life, and offer them healthy choices of diet, exercise and other behaviours.
Building back fairer will take money, investing in the conditions in which people are born, grow, live, work and age.
It is a matter of social justice. The result will be a fairer distribution of health and dignified lives.
