A tale of two cities - how where you live in Leeds affects life chances

Health bosses in Leeds have pledged to tackle health inequalities as part of long-term plans for the NHS and social care.

But big differences in smoking rates, suicide and life expectancy remain, despite progress to close the health gap in recent years.

And as public health budgets are cut by the Government, warnings are being made that the job of improving health inequalities could get more difficult.

Figures collected by the council show that smoking rate for the city as a whole has fallen from 22.9 per cent in 2012-13 to 19 per cent this year. But for areas in “deprived Leeds” - those deemed to be in the 10 per cent poorest nationally, smoking fell from 35.7 per cent to 30.3 per cent in the same period.

The suicide rate has increased and the latest city-wide figure is 10 per 100,000 people, rising to 13.5 per cent in deprived areas.

The latest figures for “potential avoidable years of life lost” per 100,000 people, a measure of life chances, was 5,515 for Leeds, rising to 9,363 in deprived Leeds.

Councillor Rebecca Charlwood, who chairs the Leeds Health and Wellbeing board, said: “The figures show that people in deprived areas have avoidably shorter lives than those living in less deprived areas.

“We also know that child-poverty - which is increasing - creates poorer health later in life.

“We are determined to halt the increasing health gap between different areas in the city and make Leeds the best city for health and wellbeing.

“Public health budgets continue to be cut however and austerity has dramatically altered local authority spending.

“With proper funding we could do so much more.”

Last March Dr Ian Cameron, the Leeds Director of Public health, raised concerns over infant mortality, alcohol-related deaths in women, drug-related deaths in men and suicides in men in his annual public health report.

Dr Cameron said: “In my annual report last year I warned that, although Leeds has seen positive recent analysis of broad measures of health for the city, a lack of national investment in preventative health threatens health improvements in Leeds and other parts of the UK made over recent years.”

But he added: “I retain optimism that, by working together for the city, we can return to improving life expectancies and reducing health inequalities.”