Lifting the two-child cap is a start – but more must follow

the everyday conditions that make it possible to live well and for longer.

- LAURIE LEE

While NHS wait times are too long, they are not the single root cause of ill health. We need to examine factors such as poverty, poor housing and insecure work. These are the reasons why too many families are forced to make impossible choices between eating and heating, or shift work and sleep, keeping them trapped in cycles of disadvantage.

The numbers are clear. Where you live determines how long you live. Across England, people in the most deprived parts of the country live about a decade less than those in the wealthiest areas. They also spend far more of those years in poor health. This gap is not inevitable. Rather, it is the product of policy decisions, of short-term thinking and of approaches that fail to see the whole picture.