People in Fenland are less likely to be healthy than those in the rest of Cambridgeshire, a council report has revealed.

The report, due before Cambridgeshire County Council’s health committee on September 11, calls for a Healthy Living Fund to be created for Fenland, which would support health and wellbeing initiatives.

A Fenland Health Inequalities Plan will also be launched in 2014/5 with a particular emphasis on targeting the high rate of smoking among Fenland’s manual workers.

Of the plan, the report said: “This includes commissioning of social marketing insight work to establish the views and concerns of Fenland residents on health and lifestyle issues and an external review of smoking cessation services and tobacco control activities in Fenland to learn from good practice elsewhere.

“It also includes diversion of existing resources to ensure smoking cessation and other healthy lifestyle choices in Fenland are fully supported.”

An East of England regional tobacco office could be created which would launch media campaigns and initiatives to reduce illicit tobacco.

And businesses with high numbers of manual workers could receive visits from people who would “emphasise the economic benefits to the employer of improved workforce health”.

The report says, throughout Cambridgeshire as a whole, travellers, children receiving school meals, migrant workers, prison inmates and other offenders are more likely to be unhealthy.