Building a Fairer and Healthier Waltham Forest

The Institute of Health Equity (Marmot) report, A Fairer and Healthier Waltham Forest, was published in December 2022. 

It exposed the scale of health inequalities across our borough, and how some residents experience unfair and avoidable differences in their health because of their ethnicity, postcode, age, household income, and other wider factors. 

The Council has officially published its response to the Marmot recommendations, Building a Fairer and Healthier Waltham Forest. Through Professor Sir Marmot’s ‘Eight Principles’ and through the Council’s three accelerator areas (‘Good Work, Better Health’, ‘Healthier Homes’, and ‘Greener and Healthier Places’), our response sets out how we will inspire ambitious, far-reaching work programmes, with the health and wellbeing of our residents at the fore. 

We know that for everyone to have an equal chance to be healthy we must strengthen our partnerships with health and care providers, voluntary and community organisations, local businesses and other organisations.

Our report describes how we are working across partners to put in place a more integrated approach to improving health outcomes for our residents, particularly those who experience the deepest inequalities.

Mission Waltham Forest

In 2024, the London Borough of Waltham Forest launched Mission Waltham Forest, our plan for a more equal borough. The strategy uses A Fairer and Healthier Waltham Forest and the Council's response to lay out an ambitious plan to tackle inequality at its root across six 'missions':

1. Ensure every family and every child are given every opportunity 

2. Build an economy that works for everyone 

3. Make Waltham Forest a great place to live and age well 

4. Tackle the housing crisis head on 

5. Lead the way for a net-zero borough 

6. Create safe, green neighbourhoods where everyone can thrive