IPPR: Tackling UK ill-health is essential to economic growth

A left-of centre think-tank said that the government should invest £15bn per year in a radical reform programme designed to improve national prosperity and wellbeing.

The Institute for Public Policy Research said that the UK’s worsening state of health affected the supply and quality of workers. It also worsened productivity. Pay was held back, causing damage to the public finances, as well as increasing regional inequality.

The report concluded that the HMRC would lose £5bn this year due to the loss of 900,000 workers since the pandemic, but better health could save £18bn per year by mid-2030.

IPPR stated: “The term’sickman of Europe’ is used often to describe countries that are experiencing severe economic turmoil or unrest. It has now become more of a reality in Britain.

We lag behind our peers in terms of health outcomes. The number of people living with long-term conditions is on the rise, and more people are living in poor health for longer periods of time.

The report, which was welcomed by Health and Social Care Secretary Wes Streeting, called for:

By the end of this parliament, higher taxes on tobacco companies, alcohol producers and unhealthy food companies will raise more than £10bn per year.

All primary schoolchildren will receive free meals, the limit on the number of children eligible for benefits is removed and the Sure Start program of family assistance will be restored.

Create health and prosperity zones, with new powers to improve local health infrastructure (such as green spaces and swimming pools) in areas that are most in need.

People on disability or health benefits have a “right to trial” – the government has committed to a new, guaranteed period during which people receiving benefits can “try out” working without risking their welfare status.

Every part of the nation will have a new “neighbourhood centre”: a single-stop shop that offers diagnostics, primary health care, mental and public health, with an emphasis on prevention.

The report stated that the UK should strive to move away from a reactive 20th-century healthcare system based on sickness to a proactive 21st century system aimed at improving health. This system would work in parallel with the NHS’s “sickness services”.

The UK was ranked sixth among the G7 industrialized nations for life expectancy and health expenditure, as well as avoidable mortality. It ranked fifth in terms of children living in relative destitution. Six times more people in the UK are obese than those living in Japan.

The report stated that “the UK is experiencing an abrupt rise in the prevalence” of long-term illnesses. The report said that the problem is not just about ageing populations: children, teenagers, and people of working age are all getting sicker.

According to the report, the goal of a new system for “health creation” would be to increase healthy life expectancy to 10 years by 2055. It also aims to reduce regional health disparities to half.

Streeting stated that he “valued” his “close engagement” with the IPPR commission and wanted the Department of Health and Social Care to improve economic growth “because we can’t build a strong economy without a strong society”.

If current trends continue, according to the IPPR, the number of people who are unable to work due illness could reach 4.3 million at the end this Parliament, an increase from the current 2.8 million.

Dame Sally Davies is a former chief physician for England and Wales and co-chairperson of the IPPR commission. She said: “I’ve long believed that Britain’s best untapped resource to happiness, economic growth, and national prosperity is better health.

This commission has provided irrefutable proof that this is the case. “A government that is interested in delivering growth, sustainable services and fairness across Britain should take note.”