By Graham Duxbury, CEO of Groundwork.
A narrated version of this blog is available at the bottom of the page
When I was growing up, summer heatwaves were a joy – an all-too-rare opportunity for the sun-starved people of Britain to dig out the shorts, barbecues and paddling pools and suspend some of the normal conventions of life. Yes, there were problems – water shortages, buckled train tracks – but we all knew it would be brief and that we’d be plunged back into the usual gloom and drizzle before too long.
The message now is different. More frequent bouts of excess heat join excess rainfall as signs that our climate is changing, and whereas once we would have put up with temporary disruption, we now realise our infrastructure isn’t equipped to cope. Poorly insulated homes, poorly ventilated offices, leaky reservoirs and antiquated sewerage systems all mean that extreme weather causes real hardship and dangers to health. We also know the impacts are felt first and worst by those in society who have least protection and least choice. Those people and places already experiencing the most significant social injustice and health inequalities are the same people and places to be impacted by environmental harms.
People living in more disadvantaged circumstances or areas are more likely to be exposed to dangerous levels of air pollution, have access to fewer green spaces for shade and cooling, have least protection against flooding and live in homes that are difficult to heat and more prone to mould, damp and condensation.
The extent of this injustice is being explored further through NPC’s Everyone’s Environment project, which is assembling the evidence and seeking direct input from people who are disproportionately at risk – young people, older people, people with disabilities and people from minority ethnic communities. The aim is to ensure the impacts of climate change are being built into the plans, campaigns and services of charities supporting these groups – and those who fund them.
Driving this integration also means pushing for change in the public sector. Groundwork’s new report – Fair, Green and Well – examines the degree to which environmental issues have been factored into local health and wellbeing strategies. The picture, predictably, is patchy. While the majority (71%) of the 147 strategies reviewed reference the importance of access to green spaces on health outcomes, nearly half make no reference to air pollution, even though the Government considers this the single biggest environmental health risk which is estimated to cause some 30,000 premature deaths every year. Even fewer strategies mention fuel poverty (48%) and access to healthy food (43%) and only one in four makes a specific reference to climate change.
Connecting health and wellbeing strategies with local net zero plans and levelling up initiatives is critical at a local level, but to be truly effective these strategies need to be operating within a much more directive national framework. Although many government documents, such as the recently published Environmental Improvement Plan, nod in the direction of more joined-up delivery, there is often limited follow-through. For example, guidance issued by NHS England to Integrated Care Systems – set up specifically to champion cross-sector approaches to health improvement – makes no reference to increasing environmental risk. With many voluntary sector organisations chairing forums and sitting on partnership boards, there is a huge opportunity for sector leaders to bring these connections to life.
The public health system we have today grew from social campaigns and philanthropic projects to mitigate the environmental impacts of rapid industrialisation and urbanisation in the 1800s. The infrastructure we built then to underpin those improvements – from sewage systems to public parks – is now being stretched to its limits in the face of new environmental pressures. We need the same campaigning zeal across the voluntary sector to protect those in harm’s way and a new commitment to collaboration to ensure we’re delivering solutions that make both people and places more resilient.
