- 8 out of 10 UK adults help the Authorities banning promoting of unhealthy meals on TV (79%) and on-line (81%) to children
- 68% of UK adults would help an business levy being prolonged past smooth drinks if the cash supported kids’s meals and well being initiatives
- The Weight problems Well being Alliance urges the brand new Prime Minister to prioritise little one well being
Immediately (twenty third Could) the Weight problems Well being Alliance (OHA) is hand-delivering letters to the future leaders of the UK Authorities with a easy request for all political events to decide to addressing the excessive ranges of extra weight within the UK inhabitants.
This comes as new YouGov nationwide polling knowledge suggests the British public overwhelmingly need motion from politicians to create a more healthy atmosphere for each little one.
As a bunch of main well being charities, marketing campaign teams and Medical Royal Faculties, the OHA is deeply involved that except daring motion is taken, extra weight will proceed to drive unacceptable inequality within the well being of the richest and poorest individuals within the UK. As well as, it’ll pile on the stress on the NHS. New analysis estimates that supporting individuals residing with weight problems prices the NHS twice as a lot as supporting individuals with a wholesome weight[1] driving down financial productiveness and forcing 1000’s of individuals out of the workforce.
The OHA will at this time current MPs from the Conservative Social gathering, Labour Social gathering, and the Liberal Democrats on the Home of Parliament with its manifesto for the next General election – highlighting the large alternative to guard little one well being*. The subsequent authorities can ship this by constructing on the successes of the Tender Drinks Business Levy and empowering native communities to make the locations they reside more healthy.
In abstract, voters wish to see the following authorities:
Prioritise kids’s well being**:
- 60% of adults suppose promoting unhealthy meals impacts on how a lot individuals purchase.
- 8 out of 10 adults help the Authorities banning promoting of unhealthy meals on TV (79%) and on-line (81%) to children.
- Solely 5% of adults strongly oppose a ban.
Construct on what works such because the Tender Drinks Business Levy mannequin*** (SDIL)*:
- 79% of adults suppose the present Authorities ought to usually be doing extra to be sure that wholesome meals is inexpensive through the cost-of-living disaster.
- 77% of all adults suppose the funds from the sugar tax ought to be used on to fund programmes geared toward enhancing kids’s well being.
- 68% wish to see the SDIL mannequin expanded to different unhealthy food and drinks objects.
- Solely 7% of adults strongly oppose an enlargement of the levy.
Empower native communities*:
- 58% of adults would love their native council to have the ability to use planning legal guidelines to cut back the variety of unhealthy meals retailers within the native space.
- 64% of adults would love their native council to have the ability to limit unhealthy food and drinks promoting in outside areas.
- 76% of adults would love their native council to have the ability to limit unhealthy food and drinks promoting close to locations that kids congregate (e.g. colleges, playgrounds).
- That is supported by adults throughout the nation from Yorkshire & Humber 72% all the way down to the South West 75%.
Katharine Jenner, Director of the Weight problems Well being Alliance says “Immediately we have now written to the potential subsequent Prime Minister of the nation with a easy request to place kids’s well being first, handle Britain’s weight problems disaster and redesign a damaged meals system that places revenue earlier than well being. Fortunately there are already insurance policies such because the Tender Drinks Business Levy that has confirmed to be efficient so all that’s required now could be to construct on this success.
“As people we need to have extra management over the food and drinks that’s obtainable and marketed to us and the following authorities ought to lead on little one well being”.
Bridget Turner, Director of Coverage at Diabetes UK says “Guarantees have been made to make more healthy selections simpler for the general public and, particularly, kids and households. Nonetheless, they haven’t been saved. There is a chance now for the following Authorities to make an actual distinction to the well being of the inhabitants by holding the meals & drink business accountable for everybody’s profit.”
Ben Reynolds, of meals and farming charity Maintain, says: “It ought to be simple for everybody to eat healthily, particularly kids however it isn’t. Our nation is flooded with low-cost, unhealthy, closely processed meals. If it actually was so simple as ‘eat much less and transfer extra’ we wouldn’t have a dietary well being disaster. The general public are crystal clear of their urge for food for Authorities intervention to revamp the meals system to place well being first. This offers an open objective for any political get together to take management on significant motion on prevention of sick well being and set a long-term imaginative and prescient for a more healthy and happier nation.”
British Medical Affiliation Board of Science Chair Professor David Pressure says: “As medical professionals, we will see first-hand the devastating impact that weight problems is having on each the kid and grownup inhabitants within the UK. The intense threat of diseases related to weight problems together with most cancers, coronary heart illness and diabetes highlights simply how life-threatening it may be.
“Any future Prime Minister and Authorities should perceive the significance of implementing legal guidelines and restrictions on the junk meals business that successfully curbs the inhabitants’s publicity to the promoting and advertising and marketing behind many unhealthy meals selections impacting their well being.”
ENDS
*** Tender Drinks Business Levy mannequin
The ‘sugar tax’, or ‘smooth drinks business levy’, is a tax on smooth drinks. Since 2018, the cash raised from the sugar tax has been used to help initiatives just like the Nationwide College Breakfast Programme and vacation meals help for kids. YouGov requested their panel ‘Would you help or oppose the Authorities increasing this mannequin of business levies to different food and drinks objects that comprise excessive ranges of sugar, salt and/or fats?’
**YouGov / Weight problems Well being Alliance Survey Outcomes. Pattern Dimension: 2037 adults in GB. Fieldwork: fifteenth – sixteenth Could 2023
All knowledge obtainable on request by voting intention (Conservative, Labour and Liberal Democrats), by age, intercourse, class and area.
[1] Pearson-Studdard, pre-publication, Cost of obesity patients to the NHS [accessed 19th May 2023]
