A DEVASTATING new report into UK health inequality has found that the 'North/South gap' has widened significantly in the last decade.

The report revealed widening health and educational inequalities. Life expectancy rates were found to have stopped rising for the first time in decades and to have fallen for the poorest women in the UK over the last 10 years.

It was published on the same day as a Ernst & Young report argued that economic imbalances between the north and south of England were expected to widen until 2023 unless drastic action was taken to tackle regional imbalances in the UK economy.

Cllr Phillip Black said of the review’s findings: “The Marmot report outlines the growing divide between rich and poor, between north and south. What once would have been described as a ‘inequality gap’ is now an ‘inequality chasm’. Here in the North - where 10,000,000 food parcels have been handed out by Trussel Trust food banks since 2014 - this isn’t news, it’s a lived experience.

“In Kendal ambulances carry the critically ill past a hospital with a closed A&E department. Across the Lune Valley and South Lakes whole communities can’t access important services because they are cut off as rural bus services continue to vanish. Rough sleepers are appearing in every town, and in Morecambe we hear gut wrenching tales of child poverty and child hunger.

“Countless £millions have been cut from the police, schools, hospitals, fire service, local councils, social services, transport - nothing has escaped Tory austerity."

In the coming days as the government prepares its next budget it needs to act with compassion and a duty of care. It needs to properly address the scandal of these inequalities.”

The review's author and public health expert, Sir Michael Marmot, conducted a similar report in 2010 that made a number of recommendations to the coalition government - many of which he says were ignored.

Westmorland and Lonsdale MP Tim Farron said: “These findings are as outrageous as they are heartbreaking.

“It’s also really important reminder that the North/South divide is so much more serious than poorer rail links.

“As a result of this Government’s heartless policies and incompetent rollout of Universal Credit, nearly 1 in 4 kids in our area are living below the poverty line.”