Tackling poor health is vital to the North East

TACKLING poor health outcomes in the North could be worth more than £18bn to the nation’s economy.

- SAM VOLPE Reporter

That's according to stark new research from the Health Equity North (HEN) organisation, which has analysed figures showing how the “North-South health divide” is getting worse.

For example, more than a quarter of working age adults in the North East are not in work, the report reveals.

HEN's second “Health for Wealth” report sees a range of academics call on the Government to act and address growing gaps in how healthy those in the North East are.

The report features nine recommendations for politicians. These include to create a “regionally focused health inequalities strategy”, to invest specifically in tackling northern mental health issues, and to empower combined authorities to act in the area.

This comes seven years on from a previous report, and experts from universities, including in Newcastle, have found the gap between our health and that of people in the rest of the country has only grown since then.

Stark figures include that an astonishing £6.6bn “could be added to the economy if mental health was improved in the North East”. Other areas of concern include that “morbidity” - defined as people receiving sickness-related benefits - has almost doubled in a decade in the North East. It's now 17.2% - up from 9.3% in 2013.

That is the highest figure for any region in the country and around 5% higher than the average for England.