The government says it wants to shift the NHS from sickness to prevention, and create the healthiest generation of children ever. These are the right ambitions. But they will remain slogans unless ministers are prepared to stand behind the policies needed to deliver them.
That is why the Obesity Health Alliance, alongside 64 leading health organisations and experts, has written to the Chancellor urging the government not to weaken or delay long-promised food health measures. At stake are two important reforms: the healthy food standard, including mandatory reporting and health targets for large food businesses, and the updated nutrient profiling model for advertising and promotions restrictions.
Both have been dragged into cost of living politics. That is a mistake.
Families are under immense financial pressure. Food prices remain a daily worry for millions of households. The Food Foundation’s latest Broken Plate report shows that the poorest families with children would need to spend 85% of their disposable income to afford a healthy diet. That is shocking and should focus minds across government and industry.
Rising food prices are not being driven by public health regulation. They are being driven by global shocks, conflict, extreme weather, climate pressures, energy costs and wider inflation. Blaming health policy for food inflation is not only wrong – it is a distraction from the real causes of the affordability crisis.
There is no evidence that the healthy food standard or updated NPM would increase prices. Crucially, there is also no evidence that scrapping or delaying them would make food cheaper.
What delay would do is leave families, particularly those on the lowest incomes, exposed to a food environment where healthier choices are harder to access, less heavily promoted and less affordable. That is bad policy, bad economics and bad for businesses already investing in healthier products.
Government analysis estimates the updated NPM would deliver £36.9bn in health and economic benefits over 25 years, reducing childhood obesity by 110,000 cases and adult obesity by 520,000 cases. The proposed mandatory healthy food standard could deliver around £17bn in annual savings to society, including £2bn a year for the NHS.
Delay carries a cost: diet-related ill health means more children missing school, more pressure on the NHS, more people living with preventable conditions including type 2 diabetes, heart disease, some cancers and dental decay. It’s also bad for the workforce, with Nesta analysis showing that better population health would mean fewer people out of work, fewer sick days and improved productivity. Obesity-related health problems are already estimated to cost £9.7bn through reduced productivity at work and £8.3bn through increased sickness absence.
The government now has a choice. It can allow vital reforms to be watered down before they even begin, or it can show that its prevention agenda is serious. Public health and affordability are not competing priorities. A healthier food system is part of the answer to the cost-of-living crisis, not a distraction from it.
If ministers mean what they say, they must publish the consultation on mandatory health reporting before the summer recess, legislate for the healthy food standard in this Parliament, and apply the updated NPM to advertising and promotions policy without delay.
Weakening these measures will not make food cheaper. It will simply make preventable illness more expensive.
Beth Bradshaw is policy and advocacy lead at Obesity Health Alliance
No comments yet