Political opinion with Beccy Cooper MP: Good health in every postcode

‘Growth in every postcode’ is at the heart of the government’s mission and there are many ways in which we are setting about achieving that. But the simple fact is that good growth can’t exist without good health, the two are indistinguishable.

A recent event in Parliament made that case all too clearly. The Health Equals campaign is a UK-wide initiative aimed at reducing health inequalities and improving health outcomes for all. It is a coalition of over 130 cross-sector organizations, including housing, employment, education, and environmental experts, united by the goal of creating a UK where everyone has the best chance of living a long, healthy life, and is supported by over 130 MPs and Peers from across the political spectrum. 

Central to their message was the shocking statistic that there is now an 18-year gap in life expectancy between those living in the most affluent parts of our country and the most deprived. Put simply, the poorer the area you live in, the shorter your life will be, and the fewer years you’ll have good health. While this may not be entirely surprising, the extent of that discrepancy in 2026 must be a cause for alarm demanding urgent action.

At a recent PMQs, the Prime Minister was asked about these drastic variations in regional health. He responded by citing a review from 2010 by Professor Sir Michael Marmot, saying it "remains the blueprint for how this country can close those health inequality gaps."  The review focusses on eight key principles: giving every child the best start in life; access to education for all; creating fair employment; ensuring a healthy standard of living; developing healthy and sustainable places; strengthening the role of prevention; reducing inequalities and tackling the social determinants of health. As a public health consultant, like the Prime Minister, I stand by every one of those.

The good news is that those principles have now been advocated and adopted by 50 local areas across the UK, including city regions, county councils, boroughs and Metro Mayors. Coventry was the first of these and improved its Indices of Deprivation ranking by 22 places within the first four years.  They recognised that the response must be not to simply to spend more on treating illness but to build fairer communities, run by those communities themselves. 

Whether through devolving decision-making powers to our regions, shifting the emphasis of healthcare away from hospitals and into the community, and putting prevention before treatment, we are seeing big changes being put in place that will start to address those inequalities. Even by returning to the levels of health seen in 2014, we would boost GDP by 2% and save the Treasury £71 billion. So, we must keep up the pace of change if we are to bring that ever-elusive growth – and good health – to every postcode.

As always, you can contact me at [email protected].