Islington Council's Executive is set to review a comprehensive report detailing significant disparities in healthy life expectancy across the borough and outlining a series of recommendations to address these issues.
The Executive of Islington Council met on Thursday, June 25, 2026, to discuss a range of important issues, including a report from the Health, Wellbeing and Adult Social Care Scrutiny Committee. The committee has dedicated significant effort to examining factors influencing healthy life expectancy, identifying alarming disparities
within Islington.
The report highlights that the difference in life expectancy between males in the least deprived areas and the most deprived areas of Islington is nine years, while for females, this gap is 3.4 years. Cancer was identified as the largest contributor to this inequality in life expectancy, with lung cancer deaths among men being a significant factor. While Covid-19 contributed to inequalities in life expectancy in 2020/21, its impact has since dramatically reduced.
Furthermore, the report notes that White and Black communities experience higher mortality linked to preventable deaths. Black and Bangladeshi communities, in particular, have higher mortality rates from treatable deaths, especially from cardiovascular disease and diabetes, respectively. In terms of healthy life expectancy, individuals in the most deprived areas spend approximately 70% of their lives in good or very good health, compared to about 84% in the least deprived areas.
Councillor Ruth Hayes, Executive Member for Health and Social Care, presented the report. The scrutiny committee has put forward ten key recommendations to tackle these disparities and improve healthy life expectancy in Islington. These include:
- Tackling Inequalities: Expanding targeted prevention programmes in communities with the lowest healthy life expectancy, focusing on men's health, early engagement with preventative services, and reducing avoidable mortality among working-age adults. This also involves prioritizing outreach and culturally appropriate engagement to remove barriers to screening, primary care, and preventative support.
- Data and Targeting: Strengthening the use of integrated health, care, and community insight data to better understand health inequality patterns and develop local intelligence on underserved communities.
- Reducing Preventable Mortality: Enhancing access to treatment and prevention services for drug, alcohol, and smoking-related harms, and increasing uptake of NHS Health Checks, with a focus on cardiovascular disease, alcohol, substance use, and smoking.
- Early Identification of Long-Term Conditions: Improving the identification and management of long-term conditions, particularly in communities with the highest health inequalities, and enhancing training for frontline staff.
- Health in All Policies: Embedding a 'Health in All Policies' approach across major strategies and policy decisions, addressing wider determinants of health such as housing quality, access to green space, active travel, air quality, and the built environment.
- Healthy Weight and Food Environment: Strengthening targeted support for residents to maintain a healthy weight, especially in underserved communities, and improving access to healthier food environments and local infrastructure that encourages physical activity.
- Tobacco, Smoking and Vaping: Bolstering the Smoke Free Islington approach with expanded public education and clear local messaging on vaping.
- Synthetic Opioid Risk: Enhancing local preparedness for synthetic opioid-related harms and overdose risks through improved surveillance, training, and partnership coordination.
- Community Insight and Engagement: Strengthening community insight and engagement to ensure services better reflect resident needs, particularly for those less likely to access mainstream services.
- A Life Course Approach: Reinforcing early-intervention support in early years, childhood, and adolescence to improve health and reduce childhood inequalities.
The Executive agreed to receive and note the report and its recommendations. Councillor Saiqa Pandor, Executive Member for Communities and Partnerships, also presented a report on the Local Initiatives Fund. The Executive Member's formal response to the recommendations on healthy life expectancy will be presented at a future meeting of the Executive.
The report also noted that life expectancy at birth in Islington was higher for females than males, and that the impact of Covid-19 saw life expectancy fall in 2020 and 2021. The report can be found in the public reports pack for the meeting: Public reports pack 25th-Jun-2026 17.00 Executive.
Further details on the meeting's decisions can be found in the Decisions 25th-Jun-2026 17.00 Executive document.
