The former Chief Economist of the Bank of England, Andy Haldane has claimed that poor health is acting as a drag on economic growth. New data finds that long-term sickness in the UK has risen by 500,000 in just three years.

He states:

“Having been an accelerator of wellbeing for the last 200 years, health is now serving as a brake in the rise of growth and wellbeing of our citizens.”

“We’re in a situation for the first time, probably since the Industrial Revolution, where health and wellbeing are in retreat.”

Worsening health of Britons is holding back UK economy, Andy Haldane warns

There has been a big rise in the number of people who are economically inactive due to long-term sickness.

The number of people in the UK who are unable to work because of a long-term condition has risen from 2 million in spring 2019 to 2.5 million in the summer of 2022.

Almost 9 million people are now neither working nor seeking work – this is a very important supply-side issue for the UK economy.