Falling life expectancy in County Durham leads to concerns

Councillor David Boyes spoke of his worries about health, the economy and crime as statistics showed drops in life expectancies before and during the Covid-19 pandemic.

He said: "It's distressing as a ward councillor when you see people who are being really negatively affected by it.

"I think things are going to get worse."

Cllr Boyes, who spoke about life expectancy figures in a council meeting last December, said today: "Over the last 15 to 20 years we've just gone two steps forward and three steps back.

"I worry that a lot of the public health budget is going to be cut and we're going back another two or three steps."

Read more: Covid pandemic sees life expectancy in County Durham fall

However Cllr Paul Sexton, Durham County Council's cabinet member for adult and health services, said he knew of no public health cuts, adding: "We're on top of it."

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) figures show life expectancy in the most deprived areas of England fell "significantly" in the three years to 2020, with the inequality gap growing wider.

Life expectancy was down for men and women in 2018 to 2020 compared to figures from 2015 to 2017.

Men lived 9.7 fewer years in the most deprived areas than those in the least deprived areas, with a 7.9-year gap for women, in 2018 to 2020 - a larger difference than for the previous three years.

"It's a sad indictment of the fact that the more deprived areas don't get the healthcare that they should be getting," said Cllr Boyes.

Cllr David Boyes. Picture: Durham County Council.

He said in his ward of Easington a lot of progress had been made, but he felt much had been lost with funding cuts: "For every pound that we were getting in grant back in 2010, we're getting 40p now.

"It's having a major effect on all sorts of different areas of the council's responsibility.

"On a local level, where the deprivation is acute, it just seems as though that's had a massive impact."

Read more: Durham school extension to train teenagers for skilled jobs

Not only are people in deprived areas living shorter lives, they are spending less of their lives in good health, according to the ONS statistics.

There was an 18 to 20-year gap in how many years of good health people enjoyed - about 52 years for those in the most deprived areas compared to about 71 for the least.

Cllr Boyes said: "Even if you do live to a ripe old age, the chances are the last 15 years you're going to be living with chronic health problems."

Cllr Sexton said: "There's always been a correlation between deprivation and life expectancy.

"That's been the case for a long, long time, and we need to raise people up to a minimum level. That's something that I've tried to demonstrate.

Cllr Paul Sexton. Picture: Durham County Council.

"But we do need Government money and Government help across the board to achieve that."

Cllr Boyes said public health funding had allowed them to give people the resources they needed to combat health issues, including helping people off drugs.

He said: "I'm very very concerned that if the public health budget is cut, that's going to have massive, unintended consequences.

"It's going to have major consequences for the local economy. It's going to have an effect on crime, it's going to have consequences for health."

Cllr Sexton said: "We don't know what we'll get from the Government until the last minute. That's normally the case.

"I'm not aware of any suggestion that we're going to be cut.

"Public health is key. I'm keen that the most vulnerable in society are looked after. Sometimes funding is a problem and is a challenge.

"There may well be cuts in the future but we don't know. What we will do is try to do the best we can with what we've got. We've already looked at that."

Read more: Plea to protect council's Public Health Grant amid cut fears

The council is still awaiting the Government's "fair funding review" concerning money given to local councils.

Cllr Sexton said: "We're hoping the Government give us a good deal. We live in hope."

The ONS said coronavirus affected life expectancy changes, and the most deprived areas "experienced the highest rates of death involving Covid-19".

But it was too soon for the data to reflect the full impact of the pandemic on life expectancy inequality.