Inner-city deprivation breeds ill-health

Government Targets Poverty-Health Link

The Government has announced plans to improve the nation's health by tackling some of its causes - identified as including unemployment, bad housing and poverty.

Life expectancy is steadily improving, but at present a person living on an impoverished inner-city estate is likely to die seven years before someone living in the relatively affluent county of Surrey. A wide-ranging review is to be carried out by the former chief medical officer, Sir Donald Acheson, to identify priority areas.

The previous Conservative government introduced national targets for fighting disease, in its Health of the Nation policy. Labour says this fails to address the problems associated with slums.

Jowell: back to tackling the "five giants" identified by Beveridge

Tessa Jowell: we want to break the cycle

The Minister for Public Health, Tessa Jowell, said: "We are committed to reducing inequalities in health and we shall do so with a clear sense of priorities.

"We want to attack the underlying causes of ill health and to break the cycle of social and economic deprivation and social exclusion."

"Poverty, unemployment, bad housing, social isolation, pollution, ethnic minority status and gender have for too long been regarded as peripheral to health policy. We shall look urgently at ways to ensure that policies across government can be evaluated for their potential health impact."

There are concerns about the resources available, but the Government believes much can be done at little cost, for instance by banning tobacco advertising and sponsorship, and through education.

Health professionals are pleased about the new campaign. The chairman of the British Medical Association, Dr Sandy Macara, gave a warning however that it would take a generation before it had a substantial impact.

The chief executive of the Association for Public Health, which represents all professions working in the field, Donald Reid, said: "This visionary strategy is just what we have been waiting for. While there will be a major task ahead to secure the support of other Government departments this is an excellent first step."

• The Government also announced a £1 million research programme into the health effects of indoor air pollutants. The project will examine such things as damp and its effects on asthma, and the possible effects of environmental tobacco smoke. Research into outdoor air pollutants is already under way.