Inequality | LocalGov


Heat pump adoption ‘miles off track’ 09/04/2025 Poorer areas in Britain are less than half as likely to see heat pumps installed than in richer places, think tank says.
Call for action on economic inequalities 07/04/2025 The Government has been urged to back mayors and shift spending priorities to tackle regional inequality by an influential think-tank.
PAC: Inequalities risk being ‘baked into’ charge point roll-out 12/03/2025 Regional divides and inequalities risk being ‘baked into’ the roll-out of electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure, MPs have warned.
City leaders call for more support for coastal areas 10/03/2025 City leaders have called for a ‘comprehensive strategy’ to tackle disadvantages in coastal communities.
Fife Council reaches £46m ‘turning point’ 25/02/2025 Fife Council has reached a ‘turning point’ and will now have to save £46m, according to a new report by the Accounts Commission.
Council chiefs warn of ‘stark inequalities’ in oral health 11/02/2025 Local authority leaders have urged the Government to take urgent action to address ‘stark inequalities in oral health’.
Call for national health inequalities strategy 04/02/2025 A new Local Government Association report has called on the Government to introduce a national strategy to tackle health inequalities in England.
EXCLUSIVE: Labour axes expert levelling up group 14/11/2024 An expert group advising the Government on reducing inequalities has been disbanded by Labour.
Stark inequalities leave women in north with ‘heavy burdens’ 04/09/2024 Women in the North of England are more likely to be an unpaid carer than women in other regions of England, a new report on regional inequalities has revealed.
Huge variation in on-street EV charger provision 27/08/2024 A new report has revealed significant disparities between council areas in electric vehicle (EV) charging provision for EV owners without off-street parking.
Council bosses call for men’s health strategy 27/08/2024 The ‘silent health crisis’ facing men in England should be a national concern, the Local Government Association (LGA) has said.
Levelling up progress ‘glacial’, think tank says 19/06/2024 Progress on levelling up in England has been ‘glacial’ and – according to some metrics – inequality has got worse, a new analysis by the IFS has revealed.
NextGov: Boosting social mobility 13/06/2024 Carl Cullinane, director of Research and Policy at the Sutton Trust, looks at what the next government should do to deliver greater social mobility.
Sir Marmot sends MPs damning letter on their constituents’ health 01/05/2024 Health inequality expert Sir Michael Marmot has urged MPs and council leaders to act after a report found government policies were ‘cutting people’s lives short’.
Addressing regional inequalities 18/04/2024 Andrew Borland, Chief Innovation Officer at the Virtual Engineering Centre (VEC), University of Liverpool discusses the importance of levelling up for growth.
Children’s services in North face £25bn care burden 17/04/2024 Children’s services in the North face a £25bn care burden due to ‘deeply rooted social inequalities’ and the ‘North-South divide’, a new report has revealed.
Dashboard compares healthy life expectancy across councils 10/04/2024 A data tool to compare healthy life expectancy across all councils in England has been launched by The Health Foundation.
Levelling up plagued by ‘astonishing delays’ 15/03/2024 The Government’s levelling up agenda has been characterised by ‘astonishing delays’ and blind optimism, according to Parliament’s spending watchdog.
Less than 20% of levelling up projects completed 04/03/2024 Fewer than a fifth of projects backed by the Government's £3.6bn Towns Fund were on track to be completed by the end of February, FOI requests have revealed.
Northern households pay £250 more council tax 12/02/2024 Households in the North are paying on average £250 a year more than they should for council tax due to ' outdated council tax bands’, campaigners say.
Ombudsman calls for Royal Commission for social housing 23/01/2024 The Housing Ombudsman has called for the establishment of a Royal Commission to deliver a long-term plan for social housing that tackles social injustices.
‘Bad health blackspots’ hold back growth 19/01/2024 Stark health inequalities are holding back economic growth, new research has found.
A million lives ‘cut short’ by inequality 08/01/2024 A million people in England had their lives cut short because of health inequality between 2011 and 2019, research has found.
‘Astounding’ regional inequality in cancer deaths 12/12/2023 The risk of dying from the cancers with the highest mortality rates varies ‘massively’ across England, according to a study published in The Lancet Oncology.
New index exposes deprivation disparities 12/12/2023 A ‘novel methodology’ has uncovered stark inequalities between different ethnic groups in small residential areas.
Council chiefs call for workforce plan after ‘unfair care’ warning 20/10/2023 Council leaders have repeated their call for a dedicated social care workforce plan in response to a CQC warning that councils are struggling to meet demand.
Level up seaside towns or lose power, Conservatives told 19/09/2023 The Conservative Government must level up England’s struggling coastal communities or risk losing 113 seaside seats to Labour, a conservative think tank warns.
EXCLUSIVE: Fresh equal pay claims warning 07/09/2023 Councils face a fresh wave of potential equal pay claims after a legal ruling exposed problems with the application of the national pay scheme.
Levelling up for the next generation 30/08/2023 John Rayson, Atkins’ managing director for the North, asks if the aspirations of the next generation align with decision-makers in the North.
Government failing to protect disabled people 17/08/2023 The UK and Welsh governments are failing to protect disabled people from discrimination and the situation is worsening due to the cost-of-living crisis.
Barnsley launches new initiative to boost employment 04/07/2023 Barnsley Council and the South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority have launched a new initiative to support thousands of residents into employment.
MPs warn of 'lost decade' for disadvantaged pupils 07/06/2023 The educational gap between disadvantaged pupils and others could take a decade to return to pre-pandemic levels, MPs warn.
Oxford and Swindon top ‘good growth’ index 26/05/2023 Oxford and Swindon have come out top in a ranking of cities according to their residents’ economic wellbeing, with Bristol and Exeter following closely behind.
Levelling up will fail without long-term funding 26/05/2023 The Government’s levelling up policy will fail without long-term funding for councils, MPs have warned.
North misses out on £21m of levelling up funding 23/05/2023 Local authority areas in the North have missed out on £21m of funding from the Government’s flagship levelling up fund, a new study has revealed.
London boroughs agree first infrastructure framework 17/05/2023 All 33 local authorities across London have agreed an infrastructure framework on a cross-party, pan-London basis for the first time.
‘Red Wall’ areas score poorly on social fabric index 02/05/2023 Local communities in areas won by the Conservatives from Labour in 2019 have continued to face decline despite the levelling up agenda, think tank finds.
Many council areas face ‘nature access gap’, study reveals 02/05/2023 In a third of local authority areas more than 70% of households don’t have access to nature within a 15-minute walk, new research finds.
Report shows stark variations in levelling up funding 25/04/2023 Competitive bidding has led to a £0.5bn gap in levelling up cash between the best and least funded combined authorities, according to new analysis.
Traffic collisions more likely to affect poorer neighbourhoods 18/04/2023 People living in London’s more deprived areas are twice as likely to be killed or seriously injured in road collisions, new research reveals.
Londoners face maternity care ‘postcode lottery’ 14/04/2023 Mayor Sadiq Khan is being urged to help drive up maternity care standards after councillors claimed there is a ‘postcode lottery’ in the delivery of services.
Digitisation must not lead to ‘two-tier society’, auditor says 09/03/2023 Spending on internet infrastructure must be balanced with measures to prevent creating a two-tier society when it comes to services, Welsh government says.
Women’s rough sleeping often ‘hidden’, council chiefs say 08/03/2023 Council leaders in London have called for action to address ‘systemic inequalities’ creating barriers to women accessing support and housing.
‘Hidden’ unemployment rates reveal deepening divides 31/01/2023 Nine out of 10 of the UK’s cities and towns with the highest hidden unemployment rates are in the North, new study reveals.
Gove urged to address ‘inequalities’ affecting GRT community 27/01/2023 Lords committee has asked the Government for more information on how it plans to address inequalities faced by Gypsy, Roma and Traveller (GRT) people.
County leaders call for devolution to be ‘turbocharged’ 21/11/2022 County council leaders have called on the Government to ‘turbocharge’ devolution to help them level up by attracting more foreign direct investment (FDI).
Public health budget slashed by a quarter, charity reveals 26/10/2022 A charity has warned against cuts to public health as an analysis reveals that austerity under Conservative governments has hit the poorest the hardest.
Investment needed to close ‘digital divide’ 20/10/2022 David Hennell, business development director, at National Broadband, discusses why the PM must prioritise digital investment as part of levelling up plans.
Government announces £50m to research health inequalities 11/10/2022 Thirteen local authorities are set to benefit from a £50m investment aimed at boosting research into tackling health inequalities.
Levelling up fails North East, study reveals 07/10/2022 The Government’s flagship policy of levelling up and closing the North/South divide has failed to benefit the North East, a new study has found.
Rich to benefit most from energy price cap 13/09/2022 Higher-income households are set to benefit the most from the Government’s new cap on energy prices, think tank finds.
Index reveals high levels of inequality between UK cities 22/08/2022 The impact of the predicted recession is likely to be felt more in some cities than others, a new study of the economic resilience of UK cities has revealed.
Educational inequalities result in ‘substantial differences’ in life chances, think tank says 17/08/2022 Educational inequalities have ‘barely changed’ over the last two decades and are likely to increase following the COVID-19 pandemic, financial experts warn.
Birmingham faces fresh equal pay claims and strikes 09/08/2022 The leader of Birmingham CC has urged trade unions to engage in talks over fresh equal pay disputes – rather than ballot staff over potential strike action.
North-South gap remains wide despite levelling-up rhetoric 09/08/2022 The income gap between the North and the South has remained consistently wide since the early 2000s despite all the talk of levelling-up, think tank says.
‘Parallel pandemic’ of mental ill health cost North £2bn 25/07/2022 The number of mental ill health cases in the North of England were much higher during the pandemic than in any other part of the country and cost £2bn.
Councils warn public health investment needed to deliver women’s health strategy 20/07/2022 Council leaders have warned that past cuts to public health funding could undermine government efforts to tackle major inequalities within women’s health.
Boost cities to level up UK, think tank says 27/06/2022 Levelling up needs billions of pounds worth of investment in cities – a level of investment not currently being considered by policy makers, think tanks say.
Care home owners paid 13 times more than carers 15/06/2022 The pay of executives at equity firms that own care homes is 13 times higher than the wages of the care home workers they employ, new research has revealed.
Inquiry hears of bullying and racism in social care sector 10/06/2022 Lower-paid health and social care workers have experienced bullying, racism and harassment at work, an inquiry by Britain’s equality regulator has heard.
Over 300,000 people living with undiagnosed dementia 17/05/2022 Improving early diagnosis for the hundreds of thousands of people with dementia could lead to over £3bn in savings through lower carer costs, report says.
Levelling up means making ‘sad Londoners happier’ 11/05/2022 The Government’s levelling up agenda should focus more on affluent local authority areas in London that have low levels of wellbeing, think tank says.
Women in England's poorest areas die younger than nearly all other OECD countries 19/04/2022 Women living in the poorest parts of England have a lower life expectancy than women in living in almost any OECD country, new research has revealed.
Cost of living crisis risks leaving levelling up ‘dead on arrival’ 07/04/2022 The Government’s levelling up agenda could be undermined by a deepening North-South divide exacerbated by the cost of living crisis, a think tank has warned.
Extra £4.7bn for schools unlikely to cover cost pressures 04/03/2022 Government ‘has little assurance’ the £4.7bn committed to schools in the 2021 spending review will cover the cost pressures that schools are facing, PAC warns.
New taskforce aims to ‘level up’ maternity care 23/02/2022 Government launches taskforce aimed at tackling disparities in maternity care experienced by women from ethnic minority groups and those in deprived areas.
Smoking 'single largest driver' of health inequalities 09/02/2022 A third of smoking households in England are living in poverty with rates highest in the North, a new study has revealed.
Leads for reviews into health disparities confirmed 07/02/2022 The leads for two significant independent reviews to tackle health disparities have been confirmed.
Rural health services need ‘levelling up’, MPs say 01/02/2022 Rural local authorities spend a disproportionately higher share of their budget on providing social care than their urban counterparts, MPs warn.
Hearing loss more prevalent in the North, study reveals 25/01/2022 Northerners over 50 have a 13.5% higher prevalence of hearing loss than Southerners in England, University of Manchester researchers have revealed.
Mind the gap between levelling up ‘rhetoric and reality’, think tank warns 17/01/2022 Central Government policies have undermined the ‘levelling up’ agenda and left the UK more regionally divided than ever, a new study says.
‘Levelling up’ agenda undermined by pandemic response 14/12/2021 Incomes in London and the south-east have increased six times faster than in ‘red wall’ regions since the general election, new research reveals.
Cities should be central to ‘levelling up’ agenda, think tank says 18/11/2021 The Government should focus on investing in cities outside of London rather than spreading investment too thinly across small towns, think tank recommends.
Childhood obesity ‘one of the greatest public health challenges’ 17/11/2021 Local authority leaders urge Government to do more to tackle childhood obesity as the NHS warns of a ‘significant increase’ in obesity rates among children.
Councils to explore innovative ways of tackling health inequalities 20/10/2021 Five councils are to take part in a new programme which will see them introduce innovative ways of improving health and tackling health inequalities.
Public health grant cuts run counter to levelling up, say experts 05/10/2021 Real terms cuts to local public health work against levelling up and the Government must boost funding after years of underinvestment, say two leading health organisations.
Decade of improvement in life expectancy undone by pandemic, data reveals 24/09/2021 The pandemic has undone a decade of improvement in life expectancy, a health think tank has warned.
Disadvantaged children ‘locked out’ of early years opportunities 19/08/2021 Research suggests Government’s policy of 30 hours of funded childcare for working parents has widened the gap between disadvantaged children and their peers.
Pandemic hits disadvantaged pupils hardest, study reveals 07/06/2021 Disadvantaged pupils have experienced ‘greater learning losses’ than their more affluent peers, new research has found.
New 'Singapore-style' Office will tackle leading health risks 29/03/2021 A new 'Singapore style' Office for Health Promotion will systematically tackle the ‘top preventable risk factors causing death and ill health in the UK’, the Government announced today.
Budget 2021: Chancellor confirms £4.8bn ‘levelling up fund’ 03/03/2021 Rishi Sunak has confirmed that the first round of the £4.8bn Levelling Up Fund will be available to local areas to help tackle regional inequalities.
Sport England unlocks additional £50m for grassroots sport 26/01/2021 Sport England has announced it will invest £50m to help grassroots sport and physical activity recover from the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.
Pushing for real reform 21/01/2021 The pandemic was a game changer for the central/local government relationship, says Joanne Roney, who has started her two-year stint as president of Solace.
Professor Whitty warns of health inequalities across country 18/12/2020 Deprived areas have higher levels of ill-health and disease, a report has warned today.
Commission calls for action to reduce mental health inequalities 12/11/2020 The coronavirus pandemic has highlighted existing inequalities in mental health, a new report has warned.
Baroness Lawrence calls for urgent action to tackle structural racial inequalities 27/10/2020 Structural racism meant Black, Asian and minority ethnic people were disproportionately affected by the COVID pandemic, a new review has warned.
COVID 'magnifying' health and care inequalities 16/10/2020 The coronavirus pandemic has ‘exacerbated’ existing problems in social care and magnified health inequalities, a report has warned today.
Tackling inequality key for post-COVID recovery, say experts 30/09/2020 Safeguarding people's living standards, re-evaluating the role of key workers in society, and reducing inequality are ‘crucial’ for the UK’s economic recovery, researchers say.
Racism raises the risk from COVID-19 for minorities 17/06/2020 Racism has raised the risk of people from black and ethnic minority communities developing COVID-19 and dying from the disease, says an official report.
Contact tracing app could leave ‘many behind’ charity warns 03/06/2020 The government's contact tracing app could exacerbate existing health inequalities, a charity has warned today.
London has highest poverty rates, report shows 21/04/2020 London has greater levels of poverty than any other region in the UK, new figures have revealed today.
Government urged to 'think big' to tackle regional inequalities 02/03/2020 A comprehensive review of economic decline and social division has called for a ‘large-scale, comprehensive, long-term and devolved’ plan of action to deliver change.
Minimum ‘basic’ income trial reports mixed results 26/02/2020 A pilot scheme assessing the impact of a minimum ‘basic’ income on poverty and inequality improves well-being but financial insecurities remain.
Think tank calls for ‘Devolution Parliament’ 21/02/2020 A think tank has called for a ‘Devolution Parliament’ as it releases research showing that England has the worst regional inequalities in the developed world.
Charity warns of ‘deep’ health inequalities 20/02/2020 A charity has warned of ‘unacceptable’ health inequalities in how long and how healthy babies born today in different parts of England can expect to live.
Commission calls for action on ‘unequal risk of mental ill health’ 21/01/2020 Some groups of people have a much higher risk of poor mental health than others, the Commission for Equality in Mental Health has found.
New figures reveal exercise inequalities 06/12/2019 Children from less affluent families are less likely to participate in physical activity than their wealthier peers.
Regional inequality in UK is worst than comparable countries, says think tank 27/11/2019 Regional inequalities in the UK are ‘far worse than in any comparable country’, a think tank has warned today.
London councils ‘fail’ to challenge inequality, campaigners say 13/11/2019 Many London councils are failing to challenge poverty and inequality, according to campaigners.
Think tank calls for ‘devolution evolution’ 29/10/2019 A greater devolution of powers and funding would help tackle Britain’s geographical inequalities, a report has said today.