The city is more disabled, lonely and anxious than it was a decade ago, a new council health survey has found.
The Health Counts 2024 report, based on almost 17,000 anonymous responses to a survey, has found big differences in health between different areas and population groups.
It found the number of people describing themselves in good health or better had fallen from 83% in 2012, when the survey was last carried out, to just 69%.
People living in Whitehawk, Moulsecoomb, Bevendean, Coldean, central Brighton, Portslade, Hangleton and Woodingdean were most likely to report poor health.
Meanwhile, the number reporting their daily activities are impacted by disability or mental health rose from 26% to 37%.
The number reporting high anxiety rose from 25% to 38%, with those in deprived areas or from black and racial minority communities and LGBT+ adults, those living in temporary accommodation most likely to be in this group.
Meanwhile the numbers saying they belong to their neighbourhood has decreased from 58% to 53%, and the number speaking to their neighbours at least once a week dropping from 68% to 56%.
One of the few areas where health has improved is the numbers of those smoking, which has dropped to 17% – down from 23% in 2012, and halved from 33% in 1992.
However, the number vaping is now 13%.
Caroline Vass, the council’s interim director of public Health, said: “The Health Counts 2024 survey findings give some of the best evidence on the population of the city, their health and wellbeing, and the stark inequalities across the city – whether by area or particular communities.
“However, the findings are not an easy read, covering sensitive areas, and evidencing health inequalities affecting our communities, while recognising their strengths and resilience.
“While we have seen many economic, societal and lifestyle changes nationally over the last 10 years that may have impacted people’s health and wellbeing and widened inequalities, this data focuses on the local picture that informs inclusive and accessible service provision, community cohesion, promoting better health and wellbeing for all, and reducing unfair differences between those with the best and poorest health outcomes.”
The survey was conducted between March and April 2024 by researchers from the University of Brighton in collaboration with Brighton and Hove Medical School, NHS Sussex, Healthwatch Brighton and Hove, Brighton & Hove Federation and Brighton and Hove City Council Public Health Intelligence team.
The evidence gathered will inform the city’s Joint Strategic Needs Assessment (JSNA) – statutory reports and briefings developed by local authorities and the NHS Integrated Care Boards to inform decision-making at the council’s Health and Wellbeing Board – and strategies to improve health and reduce inequalities.
Key findings on health and wellbeing include:
- 69% perceived themselves to be in good, very good or excellent health
- 24% recorded a low happiness score and 9% have self-harmed in the last 12 months.
- 13% said pain interferes with their normal work extremely or quite a bit.
- 17% currently smoke – either occasionally (7%) or daily (10%)
- 56% don’t drink alcohol or drink at low risk levels, while 16% binge drink weekly and 2% drink daily or almost daily.
- 20% have taken drugs not prescribed to them and not available at a chemist or pharmacy in the last 12 months.
- 19% who gamble experience at least one gambling-related harm.
- 53% did less than 30 minutes of sport or fitness activity that raised their breathing rate in the last week.
- 37% are a healthy weight, 36% are overweight and 25% are obese.
Key findings on factors that impact residents’ health and wellbeing include:
- 85% of adults were taking at least one action due to the cost of living
- 21% are fairly or very worried about their housing condition, such as damp, cold or leaks
- 81% are fairly or very satisfied with their local areas as a place to live, while 8% are fairly or very dissatisfied
- 53% feel that they belong to their immediate neighbourhood fairly or very strongly, while 42% rate their sense of belonging as not very strong or not at all
- 96% feel safe walking alone in their local area during the day, while 65% feel safe walking along in their local area at night, with 8% feeling very unsafe at night
Key findings comparing the most deprived (20% of the city) to the least deprived (20% of the city) include:
- 56% of adults living in the most deprived areas are in good or better health compared to 76% in the least deprived areas.
- 25% living in the most deprived areas smoke, compared to 9% of those living in the least deprived areas.
- 37% in the most deprived drink at increasing, higher risk or possible dependence level (combined) rates compared to 48% living in the least deprived areas.
- 65% living in the most deprived areas of the city did less than 30 minutes of sport and fitness activity in the last week, compared to 48% living in the least deprived areas.
So the government cutting disability benefits and pushing more people into poverty and hardship is just what we need.
When will politicians learn that preventative help is more needed than ever, and stop their ghastly attack on the disabled people, who are more anxious than ever thanks to the governments plans to cut disabililty benefits by £5 billion. The word cruel doesn’t cut it, Labour are just mirroring the Tories before then right now and until that changes there’s not a hope in help the wellbeing of the city will improve.
So much for all the money spent on EDI policies if they are achieving the reverse! Closing council offices, Libraries, Community Centres, Schools and Leisure centres does not help those suffering from anxiety and isolation either. The council should be encouraging more face to face contact, support and activities. Instead they promote dehumanisation and digital discrimination where only those with the means and capacity to access digital services get any services! It is becoming a very scary and poverty-stricken world for anyone disabled, elderly or otherwise vulnerable. Society is increasingly shutting them out and there is NO social justice or fairness to be seen. Ironically we are seeing social mobility and social justice fast unravelling in front of our eyes after decades of fighting for it and the modern world is turning out to be surprisingly mediaeval in its lived-experience treatment of people. Council Leader Bella Sankey should be all over this as a trained human rights lawyer, but she seems to care far more about the undocumented. Her own actual voting and paying residents are decidedly last on her list of priorities. Even city centre disabled parking spaces are disappearing or being moved to inconvenient locations and bus stops are disappearing or being put in the middle of the road so the disabled have to cross a cycle lane to get to them. This council’s lip service to ‘Health and wellbeing’ is a sick joke.
Credit where it’s due, Mike. This is one of your more grounded posts and some of the concerns are well founded. You’re right about the library closures and the removal of disabled parking bays like those on Regent Street. These have real consequences for access and isolation, particularly for vulnerable residents.
That said, some claims don’t hold up. There’s no evidence that leisure centres are closing or that services have moved entirely online. The council has actually been working with local groups to improve digital inclusion.
And the suggestion that Bella Sankey prioritises undocumented people over taxpaying residents is unsubstantiated. There’s no policy or decision that backs that up. It feels like a distraction from more pressing and provable issues
So, in reality… have we had a 14% increase in people in poor health? Or is this just another scam survey carried out by a highly untrustworthy local authority administration with an obvious political agenda? Please take some time to consider the questions.. about one nanosecond should be enough.
The joke is, (as the previous commenter points out), this administration is utterly determined to spend vast amounts of money in a manner that only favours predominately young, fit, able bodied people with unwanted and largely unused, cycle lanes in a city that is largely built on the hills of the south downs. If you are disabled or in poor health, do the actions of Muten and his Bricycle chums make you feel that your needs are on the agenda?
The cycle lanes aren’t unused, they’re uncongested- there’s a difference.
And if you’re in poor health and start using a bike, you can become one of the fit ones. That’s how it works!
And there are electric bikes that can help with the hills.
If more of us cycled, there would be less congestion and more roadspace for those, like the disabled, who really need to drive (and remember not all disabilities preclude cycling).
Are you really concerned for the needs of disabled people, or are you just resentful that other road users are getting some of what you consider to be “your” road space?
Ah, how kind of you to illustrate the point that the blinkered cycling lobby will try no end of mental gymnastics to avoid reason and correct logic.
When does uncongested become underused? How about during the times you see cars queuing for hundreds of yards whilst cycles drift by at the rate of two or three a minute?
And yes, we would all cycle.. if we didn’t need to transport materials and equipment for our jobs/occupations, daily needs. Or if we live in an area where public transport doesn’t provide our transport needs. Or if we like to get out of the city for various reasons ie to play cricket or golf (but only us healthy ones).
Cycling may be high on some people’s list of interests and suit their lifestyles but it certainly does not work for many. The roads were originally built for powered vehicle use and was funded by the users. Cycles have always enjoyed the shared use of roads but many think the highjacking of road space for the exclusive use of a disproportionately low number of users is wrong and a poor use of public money. The lack of any significant increase in the numbers of cyclists (as was the case with the OSR cycle lanes), illustrates this point.
“And if you’re in poor health and start using a bike, you can become one of the fit ones.” Is that so? I think you should set up a desk at your local GP’s clinic. You can tell everyone with ‘poor health’ that cycling is the answer. Forget warfarin, drugs for high blood pressure, heart disease, chemotherapy, immunotherapy, anti psychotics etc etc and just give them a bike.
Proselytising about cycling has been shown to be futile. It generally has the opposite effect to that intended.
Ironically, most of those you described are improved with exercise according to evidence.
Whoosh.
The Dutch seem to understand the relationship between physical activity and being healthy much more than we do. The more we all use our legs and arms to get around with wheels or otherwise the better and healthier our city will become. Add in buses, trains, car share and taxis and we will be back to the 1920s when it was a lot easier to get around because there were fewer cars.
VG3 certainly makes things worse for the disabled!
Reduced parking, reduced access, reduced safe spaces.
Why does BHCC hate the disabled so much?
the narrow pavement on the roundabout corner by the Royal Albion hotel is tight and difficult enough to use in a wheelchair in the less busy months, it is even worse in the summer
the VG3 changes will open this up more and make crossing the road there much easier for everyone
Brighton has become an increasingly hostile place for disabled people in recent years. Disabled parking spaces have dwindled across the city, whilst the goalposts of who qualifies for a blue badge continues to widen, leaving physically disabled people struggling for accessibility. Nobody on the council or any MPs will acknowledge that the parking along Kingsway is dangerous for disabled people, who have to cross a bike lane before reaching the pavement, with entitled cyclists speeding past missing us by inches. Then you’ve got Homemove, which is one of the most unashamedly ableist institutions I have ever come up against. Myself and other young disabled people have been told that we are not eligible for council housing, despite proving various accessibility needs and having no means to rent privately or buy. Some of us are homeless, living with parents or friends well into our 30s. Shut out by a system that is supposed to be there for us. The cold staff absolutely revel in telling us that “we don’t meet the needs for social housing”, and so we are left to rot in situ. I have lived here my whole life, never had the opportunity to work due to illness, don’t come from a privileged background so don’t have the bank of mummy and daddy to bankroll me… and all the people in charge of the city I was born in want to do is sweep me under the rug. Is it any wonder that disabled Brightonians feel anxious and depressed? We are mildly tolerated at best.
Completely agree that Brighton has become a much more problematic place for disabled people. There are so many more ‘no go’ areas than even 5 years ago. Roads seem to be made for buses to run through, and there’s much less space for disabled people if you need a car. Even the new Valley Gardens which is supposed to be fully accessible has made a boo boo by only having a couple of disabled parking spaces outside the GPs – what’s that about – there should be loads of spaces? No wonder people are more ill if we can’t get to the doctors. It’s a complete lack of willingness to understand disability and no strength of character from councillors to stand up and be counted and actually support disabled people’s needs. That yes, we may need cars to get somewhere, we need to park close to things. The above comment basically saying to get a bike and you won’t be ill anymore is so awful to hear. Disabled people are being pushed into the corners and out of sight where we can’t access anything. They should be ashamed.