The area has the fifth-lowest healthy life expectancy in the country
Burns Street in the Arboretum(Image: Nottingham Post/Marie Wilson)
A pledge has been made to tackle “unacceptable inequalities” in Nottingham after it was revealed men living in an area of the city have one of the lowest healthy life expectancies in the entire country.
In the Arboretum, Forest and Trent University area of the city, men are only expected to live for a median average of 48.9 years in good health before deteriorating.
This means the area has the fifth-lowest healthy life expectancy in the country, according to data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
Cllr Helen Kalsi (Lab), executive member for adult social care and health at Nottingham City Council, said “there is much more to do” to improve health outcomes for people in the city.
“People’s health is affected by a wide range of social and economic factors, and those living in more deprived communities typically experience poorer outcomes,” she told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS).
“We will continue working with our partners and local communities to tackle the underlying causes of poor health, improve healthy life expectancy and reduce the unacceptable inequalities across Nottingham.”
In the Hyson Green and Arboretum city council ward, which makes up much of the area cited by the ONS, nearly two-thirds, or 64 per cent, of children were reported as living in poverty as of 2024.
It was the highest proportion of children in poverty in Nottinghamshire, and the worst area across the entirety of the East Midlands.
Men living and working in the area cited poverty as one of the main reasons for why they believe healthy life expectancy is so low.
Damien Bower, 50, who is currently living in a hostel in the area, said: “It’s down to poverty, and there’s degrees to it.
Damien Bower, 50, who is currently living in a hostel in the area(Image: Nottingham Post)
“A lot of the residents of the area have got mental health [problems], have got drug addictions, have got all sorts.
“There’s a lot of the charities which have got buildings around here, so there’s a lot of people who are under housing, but they are homeless and they go out and they beg a lot – which is fair enough as it is – but it’s the numbers of it.
“It’s the absolutely massive amount of people that are asking you for money and not just nicely. It’s the drugs.
“I get addiction. I’m an alcoholic. I’m in a hostel myself. I was a nurse. I lost everything due to drinking, because bullying got out of hand and whatnot.
“But this charity, it’s helped save my life and I’m back in my place. I grew up just over the hill here in Sherwood and that area is nice and lovely.
“There’s trouble and there’s bits and bobs every now and again but it’s the same everywhere.”
Another resident, Andrew, 53, echoed Mr Bower’s considerations regarding the impact of poverty on living for longer in good health.
“It’s a deprived area, but there are a lot of students, so there’s no community, no community spirit I don’t think, which means that people don’t look after the place, and so then it just feeds on itself,” he said.
“So, people get used to rubbish everywhere. It becomes normal and standards keep dropping. It’s sort of the opposite of the broken window theory, where you know, you fix the graffiti in New York, and then people have pride, and you build from the bottom up.
“It’s happening the opposite way here. It’s just a reflection of the socio-economic group. I think the environment affects mental health, and people are given the opportunity not to work.
“I think they lose their self-respect and I think it all has a knock-on effect on health. So, you can’t make that easy, and then you need to improve the environment and get people invested in it and caring about it.
“But it’s like a 20-year project, and policies aren’t implemented over that time period. So, there’s no hope.”
Riley Gadsby, 23, said: “Well as someone who’s just come here, I’ve only been here for about a month; I can tell the air quality isn’t as good.
“When I walk around there’s a lot of rubbish and pollution in the area and I guess it can’t be healthy if you’re breathing that stuff in.”
The median average healthy life expectancy at birth for women across 2019 to 2023 was 66.8 years in England.
For men, the median is lower, at 65.3 years.
According to the latest data from the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities, the overall life expectancy in the city for women is 80.8 years, while it is 76.4 years for men.
Cllr Kalsi added: “Improving healthy life expectancy and reducing the gap between different parts of our city are central to Nottingham’s Joint Local Health and Wellbeing Strategy.
“Together with our partners and communities, we are focusing on six priorities: alcohol use; giving children the best start in life; eating and moving for good health; severe multiple disadvantage; smoking and tobacco control; and work and health.
“We have already taken action and are seeing progress.
“The proportion of adults who smoke in Nottingham has fallen by 33 per cent over the past two years, while more than 10,000 people have been referred to Thriving Nottingham since April 2024 for support to stop smoking, manage their weight, become more physically active, and improve their overall wellbeing.”