Earlier this year, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation described poverty's toll on the nation's health as a ‘mounting catastrophe'. The statistics are sobering. Ten million adults and 4.3 million children are living in poverty in the UK, with people in the least deprived areas of the country living around 19 more years in good health compared with those living in the most deprived.

People are having to make impossible choices that directly impact health: Should we feed ourselves so we can work, or feed our children? Should we buy cheap, but unhealthy food, so we can afford to heat our homes, or spend three times more on healthier options?