Levelling up: The great health challenge

In the UK, 94,000 people die from a smoking-related disease every year. Huge geographic and socioeconomic variation in smoking means health, life expectancy and economic inequality. Tackling smoking head-on remains a crucial step to meeting Government targets to extend healthy life expectancy and level up.

However, our latest research highlights the need for greater Government ambition in health improvement measures. Even if all smoking was banned tomorrow, the beneficial impact might not be felt for 40 years. Improving healthy life expectancy means addressing the interconnected risk factors associated with smoking, such as mental illness, drug abuse, obesity, poor housing, and deprivation.

With differences of up to 15 years in health expectancy between the healthiest and least healthy areas, there is much scope to level up – the Government’s policies just need to be bolder.