Legal & General and UCL Institute of Health Equity launch new fund to support up to 150 communities across the UK

• Ongoing partnership between Legal & General and Sir Michael Marmot and the UCL Institute of Health Equity explores the role of businesses and investors in addressing health inequalities

With the UK contending with record levels of long-term sickness and strained public health resources post pandemic—alongside an ongoing correlation between economic deprivation and poor health—global investor and leading UK financial services Group, Legal & General (‘L&G’), has today announced a new £3 million ‘Health Equity’ Fund (‘the Fund’), in partnership with Sir Michael Marmot CH and the University College London (UCL) Institute of Health Equity.

Since 2021, Legal & General and the Institute of Health Equity have worked together to explore the role of business in reducing health inequalities in the UK. Research from this partnership has shown that:

• tackling the root causes of health and social inequalities – the conditions in which people are born, grow, live, work and age – can prevent or improve poor health outcomes and increase healthy life expectancy, and
• business and investor involvement in addressing health and social inequalities can drive positive outcomes for people and communities and generate commercial and economic benefits (such as increased productivity) at local, regional, and national levels¹.

In response, L&G’s new ‘Health Equity’ Fund will support up to 150 place-based initiatives across the UK which directly address the social determinants of health: non-medical social and economic factors, including housing, education, infrastructure, and quality of work, which have an influence on local and national public health. It will provide grant funding of up to £75,000 per project. Of the £3m total, £1m will be deployed as a trailblazer fund for the North East of England ahead of opening up a UK-wide approach in the summer.

The Fund is the latest outcome of Legal & General’s long history of using its role as a business and investor to positively influence health outcomes, recognising that a stable economy and healthy society go hand in hand and businesses and investors can actively help to support both.

The Fund’s focus on the social determinants of health stems from L&G’s long-term partnership with Sir Michael Marmot CH, first announced in 2021. Previous and ongoing partnership projects include:

• A review of health inequalities and the role of business in tackling these – The Business of Health Equity: The Marmot Review for Industry, a report by the IHE supported by Legal & General
• A Legal & General IHE network – the Health Equity Network – which currently has over 1,800 active members from UK public authorities, health professionals, and businesses to support idea creation, sharing of best practice, insight, and innovation to tackle health inequality with a place-based approach

Legal & General is committed to making long-term investments in infrastructure to create a better built environment, better homes, and better jobs—each of which can contribute to improving social and health equity. It has also been working to improve public health through investment, advocacy, a strong track record of lasting academic and public sector partnerships, and using its role as an investor to positively influence peers.

L&G’s previous and ongoing health-related activity ranges from funding the University of Edinburgh’s Advanced Care Research Centre to help advance our understanding of how we can live, work, and age more healthily, through to supporting the Centre for Progressive Change’s Safe Sick Pay campaign, and encouraging a focus on nutrition in present-day health policymaking through Legal & General Investment Management (LGIM)’s Investment Stewardship Team.

References

¹The Business of Health Equity: The Marmot Review for Industry (Marmot M, Alexander M, Allen J, Munro A, Institute of Health Equity (2022).