Making Growth Felt: How WHIS Turns Policy into Impact
For more than a decade, the UK has struggled with a familiar problem: economic growth that exists on paper but is not felt in people’s daily lives. Wages have stagnated, living costs have risen, and repeated claims of recovery have failed to translate into meaningful improvements for households and communities.
The renewed political commitment to ensure growth is “felt everywhere” reflects an important shift. It recognises that growth only matters if it shows up in better jobs, healthier lives and stronger local economies. Without that connection, economic success feels distant, uneven and increasingly unconvincing.
National growth often fails to translate into local living standards. As The Cities Outlook report makes clear, cities with stronger skills bases, connectivity, and inclusion perform markedly better — reinforcing why place-based approaches like WHIS are essential.
At the World Health Innovation Summit (WHIS), this challenge is not theoretical. It is the starting point.
Cities are where growth becomes real
Cities are where growth moves from abstraction to experience. When cities succeed, progress is visible — through employment opportunities, rising wages and improved local services. When they do not, national growth ambitions fail to translate into lived outcomes.
But performance across UK cities remains uneven. Differences in skills, connectivity, health outcomes and economic participation continue to shape opportunity. These gaps explain why growth has so often failed to raise living standards consistently across the country.
As WHIS has long argued, “growth felt everywhere” requires more than economic activity alone it requires people to be able to participate in it.
That is where health and wellbeing become decisive.
Health is not a by-product of growth — it is a prerequisite
Too often, health is treated as a downstream outcome of economic success. WHIS challenges this assumption directly.
“Health and wellbeing are not a by-product of growth — they are core economic infrastructure.”
A workforce that is unwell, disconnected or excluded cannot sustain productivity. Communities facing persistent health inequalities cannot fully access opportunity. Growth that ignores this reality is fragile and short-lived.
As Gareth Presch, Founder of WHIS, puts it:
“If people are not well enough to learn, work and contribute, growth will never be felt — no matter how strong the headline figures look. Health is what turns economic potential into lived progress.”
How WHIS addresses growth locally
WHIS works city by city to connect economic ambition with lived outcomes, recognising that growth must be shaped by local context and delivered through local systems.
1. Aligning health, skills and productivity WHIS supports cities to integrate health and wellbeing into growth strategies — not as a cost pressure, but as a driver of workforce participation, skills retention and productivity.
“Living standards are not just about income — they are about the ability to live well, stay well and participate fully in society.”
This means prioritising prevention, mental health, healthy ageing and social connection as economic enablers.
2. Supporting metro mayors and place-based leadership With growing control over transport, housing, skills and regeneration, metro mayors are central to delivering inclusive growth. WHIS works with local leaders to ensure these levers are aligned with population health outcomes.
“Growth without inclusion risks political backlash, and redistribution without growth is fiscally and politically fragile.”
3. Mobilising local innovation ecosystems Universities, health systems, innovators and investors often operate in silos. WHIS brings them together locally to accelerate solutions that improve health while creating jobs, attracting investment and supporting high-growth sectors.
4. Embedding prevention into regeneration and growth Prevention reduces long-term pressure on public services while strengthening economic participation. WHIS helps cities embed prevention into workforce, regeneration and community strategies — ensuring growth delivers benefits people can feel.
5. Measuring impact, not intent
From intent to outcomes
WHIS is increasingly supporting delivery models that tie investment directly to outcomes. Through outcomes-based contract work with partners such as Smart Social and Social Impact Scotland, WHIS is helping local systems focus on what matters most: measurable improvements in health, wellbeing and participation.
These approaches shift the emphasis from inputs and activity to results — aligning public, private and philanthropic capital around shared outcomes. They reflect a growing recognition that prevention and wellbeing are not only socially valuable, but economically rational.
As Gareth Presch notes:
**“If we want growth to be felt locally, we have to pay for what works not just for what’s familiar.” **
WHIS prioritises delivery over declarations.
“Growth that lasts is growth that keeps people well.”
Outcomes matter: healthier lives, better jobs, stronger communities and reduced inequalities.
From announcement to impact
Short-term cost-of-living relief is necessary, but it cannot substitute for long-term growth. Without improvements in productivity, participation and wellbeing, such measures are temporary and self-defeating.
The opportunity now is clear: to build growth that lasts by ensuring it is felt locally, visibly and equitably.
That is the space WHIS exists to serve.
Outcomes matter: healthier lives, better jobs, stronger communities and reduced inequalities. Watch the impact for yourself in our WHISKids video, showing how local initiatives are transforming children’s health and wellbeing.