Economies for Healthier Lives

Integrating public health and economic development offers a transformative approach to local prosperity, addressing structural inequalities while driving sustainable growth. For local and regional bodies, this represents an opportunity to maximise the impact of resources – their own and that of other system allies – to create thriving communities. 

Health and wealth: two sides of one coin 

Health and the economy cannot be viewed in isolation. Andy Haldane, former Chief Economist at the Bank of England and Chief Executive of the RSA observed in a lecture for the Health Foundation, “the links between health and the economy are many, various and two-way.”

Economic factors such as income and employment are well-established determinants of health. 31% of individuals on the lowest incomes report being in poor health, compared to just 12% of individuals on the highest incomes, highlighting the physical and mental toll of financial hardship. Moreover, employment significantly influences health outcomes; a 10-percentage-point higher local employment rate is associated with a higher male healthy life expectancy of 5.1 years.

Conversely, ill health imposes substantial economic costs, particularly since the COVID-19 pandemic. Approximately 2.8 million people in the UK are economically inactive due to long-term sickness, with around 50% of those reporting long-term illness excluded from the workforce, directly reducing labour supply and economic potential. Among the around 4 million employed with a work-limiting health condition, poor health can diminish productivity and pay/security, serving neither their interests nor the wider economy.

This interconnectedness has spurred a growing recognition among policymakers of the need to integrate health and economic strategies. UK Government’s 2024 ‘Get Britain Working’ White Paper explicitly acknowledged these links, committing to prioritising health as a driver of economic growth. In this context, integrating public health and economic development offers a significant opportunity for local authorities to create a virtuous cycle of health and prosperity.  

The Economies for Healthier Lives programme

Economies for Healthier Lives (2021-2024), funded by the Health Foundation, invested in five ‘hubs’ across the UK, each exploring different approaches to how economic development can best improve health and tackle health inequalities by supporting partnerships in local areas. The work of this programme will continue into 2025.

The RSA was the learning partner for this programme; we collaborated with each Hub to understand their challenges and develop a support model with a focus on adopting innovations and sharing emerging practices.

Our coaching sought to uncover and address the key challenges to integrating public health and economic development, and pilot novel, innovative approaches in five areas across the UK.  

The Economies for Healthier Lives programme reveals that when public health and economic development teams align strategies, they can amplify impact—evident in projects across the UK that have started to embed health considerations into local economic plans. This alignment promotes a holistic vision where economic growth, social wellbeing, and environmental sustainability reinforce one another. 

Achieving this integration requires reimagining public services to shift from fragmented approaches to those that support the whole person and community. They allow for greater value for money. Leaders have a unique opportunity to engage their communities and develop strategies that not only address immediate economic and health needs but also ensure long-term prosperity for all. 

Access our insight

We have created a coaching resource that pulls together our experience, insight and case studies from the five ‘Hubs’. This resource is designed to support those looking to learn from and replicate this work to get supported at every stage, from project inception through to legacy planning.