It takes twelve minutes to travel between Stockwell and Leicester Square stations in central London, but the life expectancy of a child born near the two stations drops one year for every minute of travel time: those born in Stockwell are expected to live to the age of seventy-eight, compared to eighty-nine by the time you’re in Leicester Square. The United Kingdom has always been riven with health inequalities: the class system generates material injustice that kills people early and burdens the years they do have with an increased incidence of health problems and disabilities.

The Office for National Statistics noted a slowdown in improvements of life expectancy, pinpointing 2011 as the year the health of the nation began to decline: just as Conservative austerity policies began to bite. The statistical body notes that while several other countries across Europe experienced slight declines, “the UK has experienced one of the largest slowdowns in life expectancy at birth and at age 65 years for males and females.”

That accounts for six months’ loss of life, according to the latest study of longevity in the UK. The Institute of Public Actuaries, an organization that collates projections for the pensions industry, say this is now a trend, rather than a statistical blip. Last year they revised down life expectancy by two months; this year, six. They decline to say why life expectancy is falling after slowly rising for so long, but academics in public health place the blame squarely on cuts in benefits, public health schemes, environmental protections, and the National Health Service.