Webinar: Healthy places, prosperous lives

On Monday 19th February, we launched the third interim report of IPPR's Commission on Health and Prosperity, Healthy places, prosperous lives.

The report builds on our first interim report which showed that the UK is getting sicker and poorer. The report demonstrated that the onset of sickness substantially increased barriers to participation in work, cost up to £2200 in earnings per year, and decreased work satisfaction.

In this report, we explore how this trend is playing out in places. We have found that people living in the most deprived local authorities in England are nearly one and a half times more likely to experience economic inactivity and are twice as likely to be in poor health than those in more affluent places. This clustering of health and economic inequality is a double injustice – and we have undertaken deliberative workshops, quantitative analysis and policy testing to launch our new flagship policy: HAPI (Health and Prosperity Improvement Zones).

The Commission on Health and Prosperity envisions a UK that is a genuine world leader on health by the mid-century. HAPI zones are a mechanism to deliver on that promise, and to ensure the biggest gains come in the places they are most needed.

Our policy is focused on a simple premise: that if everywhere was as healthy as Wokingham, the UK would be the healthiest and most equal country in the world. Our focus is on giving places, local leaders and communities the tools to deliver on this premise.

At this event we were joined by Andy Burnham, Mayor of Greater Manchester and member of our Commission, the Rt Hon Sir Norman Lamb, former Minister of State for Health and Care, Efua Poku-Amanfo, lead author of the report and research fellow at IPPR, and Professor Donna Hall CBE, Chair of New Local.

Watch the recording of the event below.