The poorest residents of a South London borough die more than five years younger than the richest locals on average, it has been revealed. Kingston women living in the most deprived areas of the borough also become unhealthy seven years before the wealthiest ones, according to a new council report.

Iona Lidington, director of public health at Kingston Council, revealed the statistics at the Kingston Partnership Board on Tuesday, February 7.

She said: "At the time just before the pandemic, Kingston residents in the most deprived areas had five years less of life expectancy than our most well-off residents and we need to see that gap close.

"We want everyone to have a good quality of life because our most deprived residents also have a shorter healthy life expectancy, so they live more of their years in poor health or with a disability than those people that are more well-off in the borough. Our poorer health starts off in childhood in Kingston, for our children in the most deprived parts of the borough, as well."

Ms Lidington said Kingston's health and care plan aims to tackle health inequalities by focussing on six key objectives – giving kids the best start in life, enabling locals to maximise their capabilities, creating fair employment and good work, ensuring a healthy standard of living for all, creating and developing sustainable places and communities and strengthening the role of ill-health provision.

The Director of Public Health report for Kingston 2020-2022 looks at how Kingston responded to the Covid-19 pandemic and towards the future health of residents. The report says health challenges when Covid hit "have not gone away", and data will be updated in the new joint strategic needs assessment and as the 2021 Census data becomes available.

It says: "Within our borough, we have a six-year gap in life expectancy between the most and least deprived men, and the poorest women in Kingston become unhealthy seven years before the wealthiest ones."

Liberal Democrat councillor Sabah Hamed added in the report: "Our data shows that we have a difference of over five years in life expectancy between our most and least deprived residents in the borough. Many other health indicators also show that our residents in our more deprived parts of the borough have poorer health than those in the least deprived areas, from childhood through to older age."

The council plans to work with the new South West London Integrated Care Partnership and community partners to tackle health inequalities in a systematic way, according to the report.

It adds: "Using all our collective efforts we can work together to address some of these underlying 'determinants of health' – such as working to make physical activity easier in the borough, address causes of unhealthy weight and reduce tobacco use."