Open letter to the PM and Chancellor 2024
Monday 7th October
Dear Prime Minister and Chancellor,
RE: Urgent action needed to improve the public’s health
We are writing to you ahead of the Autumn Budget to highlight the urgent action needed to improve the nation’s health. Austerity and Covid-19 left lasting scars, and poor economic performance is both a cause and a consequence of poor health.
Your Government has made a very positive start to the mission to improve the nation’s health at a time when people in the least deprived areas of the country can expect to live 19 more years in good health, compared to those in the most deprived. We particularly welcome the formation of the Child Poverty Taskforce, and your commitment to restrict advertising of junk food and progressively increase the age of sale of tobacco.
Good health and wellbeing is the only foundation on which to build social and economic prosperity. We ask the Government therefore to deliver the changes needed to create an environment where everyone has access to the basic building blocks we need to live healthier lives for longer.
A coherent, cross-government approach to public health is needed, with every department playing its part in achieving a healthier society, and using the levers of tax, regulation, and policy to tackle the biggest public health challenges – including climate change, child poverty, and health inequalities.
Increased investment at a local level is also crucial. For example, the Public Health Grant, which is used to fund vital areas such as children’s services, drug and alcohol services, and sexual health services in England, has been cut by 28% over the past ten years. This has meant difficult decisions to downsize, or even close, vital services have had to be made. Furthermore, the most deprived areas have been most severely affected by these cuts, causing the already unacceptable gap in outcomes to widen even further.
We recognise that public sector funding is limited. However, in order to achieve public health policy ambitions, a £1.4bn increase is needed to restore the Public Health Grant in England to the real-terms equivalent of 2015/16 per person levels. This investment would mean Directors of Public Health, working with partners like local government, the NHS and the voluntary sector, could deliver improved health for all, and provide the necessary leadership to address the root causes of physical and mental ill health.
Improving the health of the nation requires a bold vision, strong leadership, and political will. We urge you to prioritise public health, recognising it as a fundamental pillar of economic growth and national prosperity, and commit to the necessary investment and action that will secure a healthier, more equitable future for the nation, and enable everyone to live healthier lives for longer.
Yours sincerely,
Greg Fell, President, Association of Directors of Public Health
Professor Sir Ian Gilmore, Chair, Alcohol Health Alliance
Hazel Cheeseman, Chief Executive, Action on Smoking and Health
Hilary Evans-Newton, Chief Executive Officer, Alzheimer’s Research UK
Professor Matt Phillips, President, British Association for Sexual Health and HIV (BASHH)
Liz Stockley, Chief Executive Officer, British Dietetic Association
Prof Yvonne Gilleece, Chair, British HIV Association
Dr Penelope Toff, Chair, British Medical Association Public Health Medicine Committee
Lisa Hallgarten, Head of Policy and Public Affairs, Brook
Andy Bell, Chief Executive, Centre for Mental Health
John Cowman, Chief Executive, Chartered Society of Physiotherapy
Clare Taylor, Chair, Collective Voice
Will Haydock, Executive Director of Policy and External Affairs, Collective Voice
Colette Marshall, Chief Executive, Diabetes UK
Tom Ratcliffe, Trustee, Fairhealth
Kevin Fenton, President, Faculty of Public Health
Gary Waltham, CEO, Faculty of Sexual and Reproductive Healthcare
Ailsa Rutter, Director, Fresh and Balance
Charles Ritchie MBE, Chair, Gambling with Lives
Larissa Lockwood, Director of Clean Air, Global Action Plan
Merron Simpson, Chief Executive Officer, Health Creation Alliance
Paul McDonald, Chief Campaigns Officer, Health Equals
Dr Luke Munford, Academic Co-Director of Health Equity North and Senior Lecturer in Health Economics at the University of Manchester
Hannah Davies, Executive Director, Health Equity North and Chief Executive of Northern Health Science Alliance
Professor Clare Bambra, Academic Co-Director of Health Equity North and Professor of Public Health at Newcastle University
Professor David Taylor-Robinson, Academic Co-Director of Health Equity North and Professor of Public Health and Policy at the University of Liverpool
Professor Kate Pickett, Academic Co-Director of Health Equity North and Professor of Epidemiology at the University of York
Dr Katherine Severi, Chief Executive, Institute of Alcohol Studies
Alison Morton, CEO, Institute of Health Visiting
Sandra Currie, Chief Executive, Kidney Research UK
Sarah McIntosh, CEO (Interim), Mental Health First Aid England
Mark Rowland, Chief Executive, Mental Health Foundation
Andrea Brown, Chief Executive, National Kidney Federation
Jacob Lant, Chief Executive, National Voices
Katie Kelly, Chair, New Local
Matthew Taylor, Chief Executive, NHS Confederation
Katharine Jenner, Director, Obesity Health Alliance
John Hume, Chief Executive, People’s Health Trust
Tiggy Parry, Director, Project Food
Professor Nicola Ranger, General Secretary and Chief Executive, Royal College of Nursing
Dr Mumtaz Patel, Acting as President, Royal College of Physicians
Dr Helen Stewart, Officer for Health Improvement, Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health
Niamh Eastwood, Executive Director, Release
Professor Maggie Rae, President, Royal School of Medicine Epidemiology and Public Health Section
Sharon White, CEO, School and Public Health Nurses Association
Emma Haddad, Chief Executive, St Mungos
Kath Dalmeny, Chief Executive, Sustain: the alliance for better food and farming
Fiona Howie, Chief Executive, Town and Country Planning Association
Andrew Jones, Chair, United Kingdom Public Health Register
Jessica Lichtenstein, Chief Executive, United Kingdom Public Health Register
Dr Panagiota Mitrou, Director of Research, Policy and Innovation, World Cancer Research Fund International