A decade of life can depend on which bit of Medway you live in
A Marmot report puts a number on Medway’s health divide, plus the week ahead, news in brief, and lots more
A new Marmot report says life expectancy in Medway varies by more than a decade depending on where you live, with the biggest gaps between the most and least deprived neighbourhoods. We look at what the report finds and what Medway’s Marmot Place ambitions amount to, alongside the week's council business, news in brief, property and the week's events.
A decade of life can depend on which bit of Medway you live in
A new report says men in the most deprived part of Medway can expect to live more than 10 years less than those in the least deprived, with an even bigger gap for women. The council says becoming a Marmot Place will help close that divide.
When Medway Council talks about health inequalities, it is easy for the language to drift into the usual public-sector fog of partnerships, networks and strategic approaches.
The new Marmot report does at least have the decency to begin with something harder to ignore.
In Medway, a man living in Luton, the most deprived part of the towns can expect to live 10.21 years less than one in Rainham South West, the least deprived. For women, the gap is 12.99 years.
That is the sort of statistic that strips away the abstractions. A decade of life is not a rounding error or a slight difference in outcomes. It is the sort of gap that tells you people in the same area are living very different lives and dying very different deaths.
This is the backdrop to Medway’s attempt to become an official Marmot Place, part of a wider programme linked to the UCL Institute of Health Equity and Professor Sir Michael Marmot. The basic idea behind the Marmot approach is simple enough. Health is shaped not just by healthcare but also by the conditions in which people are born, grow, live, work, and age. If you want to narrow the gap, you have to think about housing, jobs, schools, income, transport and the quality of the places people live in, not just hospitals and GP surgeries.
Since April 2024, Medway has been working with the institute on that basis. Its stated ambition is to halve, over the next ten years, the gap in life expectancy between Medway and England, halve the gap in life expectancy between the best and worst-off areas in Medway, and halve the gap in healthy life expectancy between Medway and England.
Calling the report “an important milestone and a big step for Medway,” Deputy Council Leader Teresa Murray said it showed how organisations across Medway were “working together on this path of improvement” and helping to create “better lifestyles and outcomes for generations to come.”
Michael Marmot struck a similar note, saying Medway had set “an ambitious goal to halve the gap in healthy life expectancy over the next decade” and arguing the report offered “real optimism about what can be done” if that ambition is followed by practical action.
That is certainly the upbeat version.
The grimmer one is laid out in the report itself.
It says Medway is more deprived than England as a whole, with sharp internal divides. It points to high levels of child poverty in parts of the towns, says premature mortality for under-75s in Medway’s most deprived areas is nearly double the England average, and notes that Medway ranks second worst among its statistical neighbours for households in temporary accommodation.
It also places some of this in the context of the post-2010 squeeze on local government. According to the report, central government funding to Medway fell by 55.5% between 2010/11 and 2020/21, while overall spending power fell by 27.2% even after council tax rises.
So the diagnosis is clear enough. Medway has serious internal inequality, and in some parts of the towns, that translates into people dying much earlier than in others.
The harder question is what, exactly, the Marmot programme changes.
At this stage, the answer is still a bit fuzzy.
The report’s first practical priority is early years, childhood and young people. It talks about reducing inequalities in early development, improving family support, tackling school inequality, and focusing on young people who are not in education, employment or training.
Beyond that, much of the language focuses on strengthening partnerships, identifying “anchor organisations”, improving commissioning, embedding equity in decision making, and building a wider Medway health equity network. An action plan with more detail is due later in 2026.
That does not make the exercise pointless. Plenty of local policy failures begin with councils refusing to describe the problem honestly. Medway’s report, to its credit, does describe it honestly. It is much better at setting out the scale of the divide than pretending a few good-news case studies have already solved it.
Medway now has a recognised framework for talking about how where you live in towns can cost you a decade of life. The real test will be whether the Marmot Place project turns into something residents can actually feel in housing, schools, work, transport and day-to-day support, or whether it ends up as another impressive-looking badge pinned to a system that already knows it is failing too many people.
Council matters
Meetings next week:
- Tuesday: Licensing Hearing Panel will decide on a premises licence for a new bar/restaurant in Strood that initially sought to open until 4am. This has been reduced, and everyone is happy with the plan except the City of Rochester Society, which continues to object.
- Wednesday: Councillor Conduct Committee will discuss a complaint against a Medway councillor. We can't tell you who it is because public complaints against elected councillors are heard behind closed doors.
- Thursday: Health and Wellbeing Board will discuss various health and wellbeing issues.
New planning applications:
- Just the one new HMO application this week, for Balmoral Road in Gillingham.
In brief
🏗️ There might finally be some movement on the Spembley building, the apocalyptic block of flats that looms over the skyline of Chatham.
🪦 A project has been launched to restore the gravestone of Thomas Waghorn in Snodland, but it is unclear whether cones will be involved.
⚰️ St Margaret's Church in Rainham has one of the best preserved crypts in England.
💉 It's covid jab o'clock once again for those over 75, care home residents, and anyone else with a weakened immune system.
🏥 Medway Hospital is looking for its 2026 Hospital Hero, awarded to a member of staff who made an exceptional difference to someone's care.
🏆 Nominations are now open for the Rainham Community Awards, the Oscars of east Medway.
📰 Our sister title, the Kent Current, turned one this week. We reflected on that first year, how things are going, and what the future might look like.
Ed Jennings
⚫ Finally, we were sad to belatedly hear of the death of Mark Templeton, former Senior Press Officer at Medway Council. When we first started doing our independent journalism thing over a decade ago, Mark kindly granted us access to the press desk at Medway Council and give the same access as the ‘proper’ news organisations. It's not an exaggeration to say that part of where we are now is due to his support.
David Sharman
Property of the week
This two-bedroom end-of-terrace Victorian house in Rochester is on the market for £290,000, and the listing isn't joking when it calls it tucked away. It sits at the end of a no-through cul-de-sac, set back from the road behind mature planting, with a south-facing rear garden that feels properly established rather than something assembled for Rightmove. Inside, it has the familiar Victorian layout with fireplaces, two genuine doubles and a bathroom that is unusually generous for a house of this type, plus a loft room for anyone who wants an office, a hobby space, or simply somewhere to go when the rest of the house is being loud. There is also a brick-built outbuilding doing utility duty, which is one of those small, practical perks that becomes strangely important once you have it. The listing says you can move straight in, and this looks less like a quick flip and more like a house that has been quietly looked after.
Events this week
✍️ Sat 11 Apr - Writing from Life // Local writer Maria McCarthy leads writing exercises to spark inspiration. French Hospital, Rochester. Tickets from £12.
🗣️ Mon 13 Apr - The History of Witchcraft and Women // Talk examining magic, rituals, and the patriarchy. Glassbox Theatre, Gillingham. Tickets £14.
🐦⬛ Thu 16 Apr - Hoo Sounds Walk // Artist Jane Pitt and local bird experts lead a walk to hear the seasonal sounds of the peninsula. Hoo Peninsula. Free.
🎭 16 - 25 Apr - Bouncers // Amateur production that takes the audience on a night out to a 90s disco. Medway Little Theatre, Rochester. Tickets £12.
Footnotes
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