Economies for Healthier Lives A new funding programme to strengthen relationships between economic development and health

The Health Foundation has launched a new funding programme to strengthen relationships between economic development and health. 

Good health has social and economic value for individuals, society and the economy. It is an enabler of the prosperous and flourishing societies that governments strive to achieve. People’s health relies not only on health care, but also on their economic circumstances – income, wealth, whether they have a job, and the type of work they do. 

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the strong links between the economy and health. It has not been a ‘great leveller’ but rather is having an unequal impact on our already unequal society. 

As we seek to rebuild the economy post-pandemic and ‘level up’ UK regions, there is an opportunity to create more inclusive economies geared towards reducing inequalities and improving health. This is set out in our recent report Using economic development to improve health and reduce health inequalities.

Through this programme, we will support local and regional partnerships to implement some of the ideas in that report by integrating economic development activity with work to improve health and/or reduce health inequalities.