The fund will award grants to support place-based projects from local authorities, charities, businesses and community groups across UK regions and nations.

Pete Gladwell, group social impact & investment director at Legal & General, said: 'We know that businesses and investors can be a force for good in society, and they have a crucial part to play in addressing health inequalities as investors, employers, and providers of goods and services.  

'We believe we can scale up this positive influence further by partnering with local and sector experts, such as Legal & General's work with Sir Michael Marmot.  Place-based, localised initiatives are essential to tackling the social, environmental, and economic challenges facing the UK—including improving public health. We want to use this fund to empower those initiatives to benefit more people.'

The fund will support up to 150 initiatives across the UK which directly address the social determinants of health: non-medical social and economic factors, including housing, education, infrastructure, and quality of work, which have an influence on local and national public health.

It will provide grant funding of up to £75,000 per project. Of the £3m total, £1m will be deployed as a trailblazer fund for the North East of England ahead of opening up a UK-wide approach in the summer.