health inequality

Getting it right

The new health duty on strategic authorities

This article originally appeared in the Municipal Journal.

The Government’s White Paper on devolution in England introduces a commitment to create a bespoke duty related to health improvement and health inequalities for strategic authorities (SAs).

The Centre for Local Economic Strategies (CLES) and The King’s Fund are working jointly on a programme of work, commissioned by The Health Foundation, to understand the potential for strategic authorities to have an impact on health inequalities. As part of this we have thought through how this new duty needs to be designed and implemented to be successful, taking into account learning from existing duties.
“a narrow focus could actually exacerbate health inequalities”
In our earlier briefing we recognised that English devolution could have a positive impact on health inequalities, but that it is viewed as a primarily economic policy lever, to generate economic growth in lagging regions.  Our evidence review showed that a narrow focus could actually exacerbate health inequalities if the distribution of growth benefits is not considered; and even in other countries where regional policy has narrowed economic inequalities, it does not necessarily follow that health inequalities narrow too.  The inference is that health inequalities will not narrow simply as a result of the fact of more devolution, it needs to be accompanied by strong and consistent intent. This has been the case in Greater Manchester which has had clear success, and in other areas such as the West Midlands where health has been a core area for action of the Combined Authority.

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  • RESEARCH

    Essay: getting it right

    23rd June 2025
    1.9MB     .pdf
    ...

    • Community wealth (and health) building

    This article originally appeared in the Municipal Journal.

    The purpose of our economy should be to generate good lives and wellbeing for all, and, in CLES’s final Community Wealth Building Conversation at the end of November, we got to hear first-hand about the myriad ways in which this progressive approach to economic development is helping to deliver better health outcomes for people and communities, through the actions of key anchor institutions. Three things stood out from the conversation.

    First, there is growing evidence of impact.

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    Combined recipe for healthy communities

    How can mayoral combined authorities use their powers and resources to keep us well? In a new programme of joint working launched last month, CLES, The King’s Fund and the Health Foundation have come together to answer this key question. This project builds on a £1.3m Health Foundation award to the West Midlands Combined Authority, who will be working in partnership with eight other combined authorities over three years to drive action on health within the regions.

    English mayoral combined authorities have been established with a remit to boost sub-regional economic growth, enhance local democratic engagement and accountability and address knotty policy problems. Through their distinct powers, responsibilities and resources, they are also able to affect the wider determinants of health, such as people’s access to good quality work, transport and housing.

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    Changing lanes: urban mobility and the impact of Covid-19

    The impact of Covid-19 is changing the way we live, and upending orthodoxies at a blistering pace. This holds true for transport as it does for so much else. Recent regulation change is set to have significant impacts on the way many of us interact with – and travel across – the urban environment.

    By changing the rules around the advertising of traffic regulation orders, central government has now made it considerably easier for local authorities to impose car-free streets across the country. Whilst not noted in the new guidance itself, Chris Heaton-Harris, Minister of State for Transport, tweeted that the intention of this change is “to help local authorities that want to give cyclists and pedestrians more space on roads during the #coronavirus.

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