Major new review of health inequalities lays roadmap for the role of business in levelling up

The three ways that business can improve people’s lives by reducing health inequality are:

1. Promote the health of employees through pay and benefits, hours and job security and conditions of work
2. Support the health of clients, customers and shareholders through products and services they provide and investments they make
3. Influence the health of individuals in the communities through investment influence, procurement, and supply networks.

The report finds that by improving the health of their employees, employers can reap the benefits of a more productive workforce. It has been estimated, for example, that 30% of the shortfall in productivity in the ‘Northern Powerhouse’ compared with the rest of England is due to ill health.

Legal & General and UCL IHE have entered into a four-year partnership to further the role of business in reducing inequalities in health in the UK and to establish a UK-wide health equity network. This report, setting out how business can drive improvements in health equity, is the one of the key outputs from the partnership.

This latest Marmot Review confirms businesses with a strong social purpose attract and retain the best employees, who increasingly seek more than just a pay-cheque. Within companies, the report points out, employees who feel emotionally connected and understand how they contribute personally have a stronger sense of wellbeing. Research shows having a sense of purpose in life is highlighted as a key feature for living to be over 100.

The Review goes further than workforce health because most of health outcomes are determined by the conditions in which we are born, live, grow, work and age – the Social Determinants of Health. The review therefore includes a framework for how businesses of all size can become a partner in creating healthier societies by reducing health inequities – considering their products and influences as well as employees’ health.

Why business has a role in reducing health inequities

• Ill health is responsible for 30% of the shortfall in productivity in the ‘Northern Powerhouse’ compared with the rest of England
• For no good biological reason life expectancy stalled in 2019, then fell for men and women by approx. a whole year (the level of a decade ago) due to the COVID-19 pandemic (from 79.9 and 83.6yrs to 78.6 and 82.6yrs respectively)
• Excessive working hours are linked to premature deaths from stroke and heart disease – approximately 1:8 workers do more than 48hrs/week in the UK, rising to 1:6 in London
• The food industry spends 27 times more on advertising than the UK government budgets on promoting healthy eating, but obesity is a major social determinant of a shorter healthy life expectancy and contributed towards many deaths during Covid
• The statutory minimum wage is often insufficient to live a healthy life – most people in the UK in poverty are in paid work
• Pay for sickness absence is essential to physical and mental health yet statutory sick pay is one of the lowest in the EU, and many low earners are not even eligible
• Pockets of good work, siloed in ethics, corporate social responsibility or Environment, Social and Governance (ESG) teams, do not translate into healthy business practices
• Unhealthy environments cause a quarter of all deaths globally – polluting industrial sites or transport often move to disadvantaged neighbourhoods, exacerbating health inequities.