Contribution
I beg to move, That the Bill be now read a Second time.
It is my privilege to introduce this Bill today. I thank the Clerks from the Public Bill Office for their support in bringing it to life, and colleagues from along our coastline for their expressions of support for it.
Along our coast, people live sicker and die younger. Five years ago, the chief medical officer laid out the evidence, and today this House has an opportunity to act on it. Fresh from steering the nation through the pandemic, Professor Sir Chris Whitty sought to tackle another major challenge: he published a seminal report outlining the health inequalities faced by coastal communities across our country, which include mine in North Norfolk. The findings are stark and shocking, but clear: across a range of measurable factors, those living in coastal communities were worse off—higher rates of coronary heart disease, lung conditions, obesity, substance abuse and addiction, and mental ill health. Their life expectancies were lower, and the percentage of those lives lived in good health was lower, too.
We are an island nation. For an island nation to have poorer health outcomes in coastal areas is an unacceptable failing. The evidence exists, and the recommendations exist. What is missing is a system that turns them into action and makes someone answerable when that action falls short. The things that Professor Whitty outlined are not news to many of us in coastal communities. We understand the challenges we face, and we live with them daily. What they exposed is how much coastal communities have in common in facing down these challenges, and how much more we have in common with our coastal neighbours than we do with many of our inland neighbours.
Our coastal communities could be a powerful force, and they need to be if the Government are to deliver their ambitions for growth, green energy, strengthened industry, and national defence and security. If our communities are sicker, those aims will all be harder to achieve. For too long, the issues of health and wellbeing in our coastal communities have not been part of the wider conversation about tackling health inequality. I introduced this Bill because I am determined to ensure that my community in North Norfolk, and communities anywhere on our nation’s coast, is being properly represented.
Let us look at the inarguable facts. Professor Whitty’s findings continue to stack up with more recent research. An article published just weeks ago in the Journal of Public Health found that coastal communities in the south-east have life expectancy four years lower than their inland neighbours. In the east of England, it is three years lower. I have spoken before about how these inequalities can even be seen within counties; there are notable differences in life expectancy at either end of the Acle Straight in Norfolk, between Broadland and Great Yarmouth, despite their being only a few miles apart. Research from University College London, published in the British Medical Journal over the summer, also shocked me. It spoke of
“people who grew up and stayed in coastal areas becoming more likely to develop morbidity from midlife compared with those staying in inland areas and…the people who move to coastal areas are sicker compared with those who move away from coastal areas.”
I want the House to reflect on that for a moment. We have evidence that suggests that for people in coastal communities, the best way to stay healthy could be to leave—and for those who are not there currently, not to move there. This is an existential threat to coastal communities as we know them.
Action is not a choice any more; it is a necessity. This matters to the Minister with responsibility for health inequalities, the right hon. Member for Kingston upon Hull North and Cottingham (Dame Diana Johnson), who is not in her place today. She is a respected champion and hard worker for the fine city of Hull. In her area, people will live only 53 years of their life in good health. The average age of MPs elected to this place in 2024 was 48, so were the average MP to become an average resident of Hull, they would have only five years of good health left. I am sure many of us still have a great many things we wish to do in our lives that are reliant on our good health. How would we react to being told that we had five years before our health started to become noticeably and impactfully poorer? That is not acceptable for the people who live anywhere in the country, and I implore the Minister to support the Bill and make a change for all our coastal constituents.
The Bill makes two straightforward demands: a duty to act and a strategy that brings Government together to deliver. As I said during the Health Bill debate, the Government’s current aim to have a duty to tackle health inequality is commendable, but as drafted it is flawed. There are no safeguards to ensure that coastal communities see the benefits of any of this work. Being at the end of the line, often disparately populated and with difficult challenges to tackle, makes it possible that the Government will overlook such communities in favour of tackling health inequality in larger, inland metropolitan areas.