Men who live in deprived areas of Kent can expect their lives to be nine years shorter than those who live in more affluent parts of the county.

A study by Kent County Council showed men from poorer districts have a life expectancy of around 74 years compared to 83 in richer areas.

The annual joint strategic needs assessment (JSNA) exceptions report also revealed women who live in poor areas have thier lives cut short by an average of six years - living to 80 compared to 86 for those who are better off.

The county councillor in charge of public health says he is "disappointed" there continues to be unfair differences between the health of those who live in poor and rich areas.

Cllr Graham Gibbens (Con) raised his concerns that people from deprived areas like Thanet and Swale are not getting the same life chances as elsewhere in the county.

Although it does not give a breakdown by each district, the report showed there is still a "persistent" difference between the rich and poor, even though mortality rates have dropped.

At the Kent health and wellbeing board yesterday (February 7), Cllr Gibbens said: "I'm sure I sound like a broken record, since I say this every year, but we are still having health inequalities widening.

"We can come up with all manner of reasons why health inequalities are widening but the fact is, they are.

"I think we have to ask ourselves, both professionals and elected people, what are we going to do to address it?

"We can come up with all manner of reasons why health inequalities are widening but the fact is, they are..." - Cllr Graham Gibbens

"At the end of the day, if we do not speak up for the most deprived people in our communities, nobody else will speak up for them."

Dr Abraham George, who is consultant in public health for KCC, said: "The progress we were hoping to make in reducing the gap is not evident, it's still persisting.

"While health inequalities are gradually improving overall, there is still a widening between the most and least deprived."

He added some factors include the prevalence in smoking and cancer.

Head of public health at KCC, Andrew Scott-Clark, told the board of councillors and medical professionals that this is a national epidemic.

The report also outlined that the Kent population is due to grow by 74,800 - 5% - from 2019 to 2024.

Older people are the fastest growing group of people in Kent, with the latest projections estimating the number of over 65s will grow by 10.2% over the same time period, compared to 3.8% for those under 65.