More than a fifth of the cuts to the public health budget are planned to be made in London according to a new consultation published by the Department of Health.
This equates to a £40 million reduction to public health budgets in London which the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) London branch have warned will only exacerbate health inequalities.
London will receive cuts 30% higher per head compared with the rest of the country, with a blanket 6.2% reduction in the budgets meaning that the capital's poorest areas will be some of the hardest hit in the country. Areas of high deprivation will lose some of the largest amounts, with Hackney, Tower Hamlets and Lambeth seeing reductions of £2 million, £2.2 million and £1.9 million respectively from January 2016.
RCN London regional director Bernell Bussue said: 'Already in London we are seeing school nursing posts lost and other preventative health schemes squeezed out. These cuts will make health inequalities worse and disproportionately hit harder to reach communities in inner city boroughs.'
He added: 'The Government keeps telling us they want to put prevention at the heart of healthcare but with another £40 million cut from London's public health budget they are storing up problems for the future.'
The UK Faculty of Public health has raised concerns that the cuts to the budget will lead to provision services in London such as alcohol, sexual health, weight loss support, smoking cessation, and children health services being reduced.
London's public health budgets will bear approximately 20% of the national cut of £200 million announced by George Osborne, the chancellor of the exchequer, in June.