Report: Build Back Fairer: The Covid-19 Marmot Review

As the UK emerges from the Covid-19 pandemic ‘Build Back Better’ has become the mantra. Important, but we need to Build Back Fairer. The levels of social, environmental and economic inequality in society are damaging health and wellbeing.

This Institute of Health Equity report, commissioned by the Health Foundation, highlights how inequalities in mortality from Covid-19 and rising health inequalities as a result of social and economic impacts, have made the need for change even more important.

The aim of this report:

• To examine inequalities in Covid-19 mortality.
• To show the effects that the pandemic, and the societal response to contain the pandemic, have had on social and economic inequalities, their effects on mental and physical health, and their likely effects on health inequalities in the future.
• To make recommendations on what needs to be done.

The report calls on the government to learn the lessons of the pandemic, prioritise greater equity and health, and work urgently to reduce the severity of the health crisis caused by the economic and social impacts of the pandemic and the societal response.

For employers, a large part of driving change to create a more equitable society will be to ensure fair employment and good work for all, as well as to ensure a healthy standard of living for all.