Stuart Anderson MP is delighted that the City of Wolverhampton Council has been equipped with almost £23 million to improve the health of the city’s population and reduce health inequalities. It is part of the Public Health Grant, which invests in preventing ill health, promoting healthier lives, and addressing health disparities.
Stuart said that he welcomed the funding for Wolverhampton, which this year totals £22.9 million to discharge public health functions across the city. This is almost £80 per head of population. With the funding, the Council can invest in interventions to increase access to health and care services for under-served communities through a range of public health and preventative services. This delivers on the Government’s objective to increase healthy life expectancy and reduce ill-health related labour market inactivity - unleashing economic growth.
The Public Health Grant also contributes towards the Government’s ambition, set out in the Levelling Up White Paper, to improve healthy life expectancy by five years by 2035 and reduce the gap between areas where it is highest and lowest by 2030. As part of this, the Government is increasing the Public Health Grant to £3.6 billion in 2024/25 to address health disparities, which exist across a wide variety of conditions from cancer to mental health, and contribute towards variation in life expectancy.
Together with additional grants of £516 million to improve drug and alcohol addiction treatment and recovery, and £170 million to improve the Start for Life services, the Government is delivering a real-terms increase of more than 4%. The Government is also investing an additional £70 million per year to support local authority-led stop smoking services – nearly doubling current spend on these services – in support of the commitment to deliver a smoke-free generation.
Stuart Anderson MP said: “I am delighted that the City of Wolverhampton Council has been equipped with more than £22 million to invest in evidence-based activities that tackle health inequalities in our city. This investment is worth almost £80 per head of population and will enable vital interventions that tackle health disparities in our community, helping to boost life expectancy across the board and narrow the gap . It is also part of a wider package of investment in public health to improve the nation’s health and wellbeing.”