Plan to help Mancunians live longer

Helena Vesty speaks to council leader Bev Craig about a bold plan to raise life expectancy in the poorest areas of the city

- Helena Vesty

EVEN before the Covid-19 pandemic, Manchester was ‘on the verge of declaring a public health emergency’ of its own.

“We’re in some of the worst league tables for some of the wrong reasons,” the city’s leader says.

Manchester had not yet been hit by the virus, but its population was already facing a dire outlook - limited lifespan, children living in poverty and too many deaths from serious illnesses. Three years on, those problems have only become more pressing.

Despite being a ‘world-class city’, a man born in affluent Manchester can expect to live eight years longer than a man born in the most disadvantaged areas.

For women, that gap is six years. Some 42 per cent of children - 46,269 - live in poverty and one in three do not have sufficiently developed speech before starting school. And when they get older, poverty and the ill health which follows can severely limit their employment opportunities.

Now Manchester is taking a bold risk. In an exclusive interview with the Manchester Evening News, council leader Bev Craig says the town hall, along with a host of other organisations across the city, is ‘putting its money where its mouth is’.

Together, the council, the NHS, social and financial institutions, businesses and voluntary and community groups are launching a colossal plan to tackle inequality and prevent these deaths - and Manchester is not waiting for Westminster’s permission.

Leaders have launched the ‘Making Manchester Fairer’ plan. The radical proposals are set to unfold over the next five years, but town hall chiefs are hoping to make it last a lifetime.