Life expectancy in Britain 'grinding to a halt'

Rises in life expectancy are "grinding to a halt" after more than a century of continuous progress.

Using Office for National Statistics projections for babies born since 2000, Sir Michael Marmot, who has advised both the government and the World Health Organisation, says the rate of increase in life expectancy has nearly halved in England since 2010.

Between 2000 and 2009, life expectancy at birth increased by one year every five years for women and by one year every 3.5 years for men, compared to one year every ten years for women and one for every six for men post-2010. Life expectancy in Britain currently stands at 79 years old for men and 82 for women.

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Marmot said the "deeply concerning" findings were "historically highly unusual". He added that he could not draw conclusions as to why this has happened, but it was "entirely possible" austerity was to blame, citing concerns about "miserly" health and social care spending.

He added that he could not draw conclusions as to why this has happened, but it was "entirely possible" austerity was to blame, citing concerns about "miserly" health and social care spending.

"We've got many more older people at very old ages and life expectancy is stagnating so problems that affect older people are going to be more numerous," he said.

From 1979, NHS spend in real terms increased about 3.8 per cent per year, but that dropped to 1.1 per cent from 2010, "significantly below the long term trend", says The Independent. Spending on adult social care since 2010 has gone down 6.4 per cent.

The Daily Telegraph highlights "lifestyle diseases" and the rise in dementia, which is now the leading cause of death among women aged over 79 and men over 85, while the Daily Mail focuses on the impact on the middle classes, who it said "are predicted to be hardest hit by the phenomenon as they struggle to afford rising care bills in old age".

The government denied welfare policies were responsible. A spokesman for the Department of Health said ministers were providing the necessary support and funding to ensure life expectancy "continues to increase".

Last year, scientists in the US concluded the absolute limit for human life was about 115.

However, speaking to the BBC, Marmot dismissed arguments that the slowing of life expectancy could be related to humans reaching the outer limit of how long they could live. Countries such as Hong Kong had longer life expectancy than England and continued to see consistent rises, he said.