Life expectancy in parts of Britain ‘has dropped’

LIFE expectancy has fallen by more than a year in areas of the UK since 2011, according to national data.

Post-industrial towns and isolated rural areas are being worst hit, official figures reveal, while people living in London and parts of the southeast are enjoying greater longevity. Officials at Public Health England looked into the trends following warnings that Britain was lagging behind other European countries.

They found dozens of areas where life expectancy fell by over half a year, while some of the biggest drops included former mining areas such as Hartlepool, where male life expectancy fell more than a year to 76.4, or Amber Valley, Derbyshire, where female life expectancy is down more than a year to 82.4.