Why Health?

Commissioned by the London Development Agency, this study explores the links between health improvement and sustainable economic development.

For policy-makers and practitioners involved in economic development the report builds a robust, evidence-based case for why health impact should be taken into account in shaping their work.

For those involved in health activity the report evidences how sustainable economic development can significantly contribute to their objectives. For example, Care Minister Ivan Lewis notes: “We should think, too, about the wider benefits of some of the [care services] initiatives that are going on - a recent Office for Public Management study highlights the mutually reinforcing relationship between economic development and health.”

In conjunction with the Why Health? study, OPM have developed an interactive tool to help practitioners understand in detail the links between health and sustainable economic development and to focus their work on areas where these links will have significant impact on a project’s desired outcomes.

Substance of the report

  • Evidence suggests that regional development agencies and wider actors on the economy can only achieve sustainable economic development if they pursue these goals alongside improving the health of their populations.
  • Development agencies have the potential to influence a wide range of factors that impact on the health of their populations, and on inequalities in health outcomes among those populations. Several of these factors are beyond the scope of bodies in the health sector.
  • The economic costs associated with ill-health and the economic benefits of good health are sufficient to make a powerful business case for addressing these wider factors. For example, mental ill-health is estimated to cost the UK economy £10-12 billion per year, whereas a 1% reduction in the sedentary population would be estimated to deliver a social benefit of up to £1.44 billion per year.
  • The economic case for considering health in economic development is strengthened by the scale of health inequalities; in London a statutory requirement to combat health inequalities will provide an excellent platform for action.
  • The mutually-reinforcing interaction between health and sustainable economic development is highly complex. The interactive impact model developed alongside this report clarifies and highlights this interaction, allowing policymakers and practitioners to focus their work on areas that will have strongest impact on their region’s key health and economic priorities.