Want the top news headlines sent to your inbox daily? Sign up to our FREE newsletter below Subscribe Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Invalid Email

Anti-poverty campaigners have demanded measures to protect North East children after a major study found deprivation in a child's early years led them to die younger.

The North East Child Poverty Commission said the Government must use next month's Budget to explain how it will "dramatically reduce child poverty levels in the coming years".

It followed the publication of a report by Professor Sir Michael Marmot, who warned that life expectancy was now lower in the North East than in any other part of the UK.

And in the poorest parts of our region, life expectancy is actually falling. Across the country as a whole, people are living longer than they used to but the rise in life expectancy had "slowed dramatically" since 2010, he said.

Sir Michael's report warned: "Poverty experienced during childhood harms health at the time and throughout the rest of life."

Jane Streather, Chair of the North East Child Poverty Commission, said: "This new report paints a detailed and truly damning picture of the human cost of austerity - and the damaging, lifelong effects of spending decisions taken over the last ten years.

"It's becoming increasingly clear that a generation of young people in the North East have had most of their childhoods blighted by the impact of spending cuts, and it's not right that children and families in our region have borne the brunt of this."

People in wealthier parts of the country are likely, on average, to live longer. Life expectancy at birth for males living in the most deprived areas in England was 73.9 years in 2016-18, compared with 83.4 years in the least deprived areas, and corresponding figures for females were 78.6 and 86.3 years.

It means men in the richest parts of the country might live on average 9.5 years longer than those in the poorest parts, while for women the gap is 7.7 years.

And this gap has grown wider since 2010, when it was 9.1 years for men and 6.8 years for women.

While life expectancy generally increases as the years go by, that increase is slowing down - and has gone backwards in the poorest parts of the North East. Sir Michael's report, published by the Institute of Health Equity, said: "For both men and women, the largest decreases in life expectancy were seen in the most deprived 10 per cent of neighbourhoods in the North East and the largest increases in the least deprived 10 per cent of neighbourhoods in London."

And he warned: "There are growing regional inequalities in life expectancy. Life expectancy is lower in the North and higher in the South. It is now lowest in the North East and highest in London."

The difference was a result of some areas being much poorer than others, he said. In fact, people in the richest parts of the north were likely on average to live as long as those in the wealthiest areas in the south.

Sir Michael's research didn't only consider how long people lived. It also looked at how many years people could expect to enjoy good health, and found that this also varied considerably depending on whether you were in a wealthy neighbourhood or not.

"The gradient in healthy life expectancy is steeper than that of life expectancy. It means that people in more deprived areas spend more of their shorter lives in ill health than those in less deprived areas."

Looking at how wealth affects life expectancy, the report highlighted the impact of child poverty. It said: "Early childhood is a critical time for development of later life outcomes, including health. Evidence shows that positive experiences early in life are closely associated with better performance at school, better social and emotional development, improved work outcomes, higher income and better lifelong health, including longer life expectancy."

Being unemployed could also affect people's health - but being in work in a low paid and insecure job could be even worse, the report said.

"A poor quality or stressful job can be more damaging to health than being unemployed. Unemployment and poor quality work are major drivers of inequalities in physical and mental health. Being in poverty and working in poor quality employment have marked effects on physical and mental health, including on children in the families concerned."

The growth in zero hours contracts, in which staff do not know how many hours they will be expected to work each week or how much they will be paid, may have affected life expectancy, the report said.

"The number of people on zero hours contracts has risen significantly since 2010. In autumn 2018 there were nearly 900,000 people on zero hours contracts in the UK, compared with 168,000 in 2010. Most of the people on zero hours contracts are in lower skilled and manual occupations, and because of the impacts on health, this will have contributed to widening health inequalities."

Dr Jennifer Dixon, chief executive of the Health Foundation, which commissioned the report, said: "We urgently need a new national health inequalities strategy, backed by investment in the factors that have the most powerful impact on health, such as early years and youth services, housing, education, social security and good quality work."

Health Secretary Matt Hancock said: "There is still much more to do, and our bold prevention agenda, record £33.9bn a year investment in the NHS, and world-leading plans to improve children's health will help ensure every person can lead a long and healthy life."

Ian Lavery, the MP for Wansbeck and Labour Chair, said: "This is yet another scathing indictment of the effects of ten years of Tory government on the country as a whole and the North East in particular. In our region life expectancy is the lowest in the country and falling in the poorest areas.

"We have the lowest levels of attainment at the age of 16, the lowest employment rate and the lowest weekly earnings. We have the highest levels of household debt and household wealth is 2.6 times less than households in the South East of England. These figures are an absolute disgrace and lay bare the shocking reality of ten years of neglect."