LIFE expectancy in Scotland has been dragged down by Tory austerity in a repeat of the impact from the economic policies of the 1980s Thatcher years, according to a public health expert.
Gerry McCartney, professor of wellbeing economy at Glasgow University, also warned that plans in Michael Gove’s levelling up strategy to narrow inequalities in healthy life expectancy are unlikely to succeed.
That has been echoed by a health charity, which has calculated under the current rate of progress the ambition for healthy life expectancy to rise by five years by 2035 would not be achieved in Scotland until 2080.
The UK Government’s plans for levelling up, outlined in a white paper last week, came as figures revealed the number of years that Scots can expect to live in good health has fallen for the last four years for women and the last three for men.
Gerry McCartney
Shocking figures from the National Records of Scotland show those living in the most deprived areas have on average 24 fewer years in good health than those living in the least deprived areas.
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