There is a deficit in Government policy on health inequalities, and this means local communities need to take responsibility for reducing them. This was the key message delivered by one academic expert.

Health inequalities specialist and professor at Leeds Beckett University Mark Gamsu told The MJ: ‘Nationally, no one is saying: ‘This is the scale of the challenge and this is what we are going to do about it'. The only people who are going to take responsibility locally are those who live locally.'