The Government’s flagship promise to shift the NHS from sickness to prevention risks failing before it has even begun, 65 leading health organisations and experts from the medical community have warned today.
In an open letter to the Chancellor, coordinated by the Obesity Health Alliance, major health charities, medical royal colleges, campaign groups, healthcare professionals and patient voices are urging the Government to protect, not weaken, evidence-based policies to improve the nation’s poor diet and to stop children’s health being dragged into cost-of-living politics.
The coalition is now calling on ministers to take three immediate steps:
- Publish a formal consultation on mandatory health reporting before the summer recess, with a commitment to implementation next year across all relevant sectors.
- Introduce legislation for the Healthy Food Standard – including mandatory reporting and mandatory health targets – within this Parliament.
- Apply the updated Nutrient Profiling Model to advertising and promotions restrictions, with a clear and defensible mechanism for implementation, ensuring this work does not delay progress on the Healthy Food Standard.
The organisations caution that delaying or diluting these measures would undermine the central ambition of the NHS 10‑Year Health Plan: to stop people becoming ill in the first place and to help create the healthiest generation of children ever.
They argue that action to improve the food environment should not be presented as conflicting with taking action to help people with the cost-of-living. Weakening public health policy is a false economy – it will not cut household bills, they stress, but it will leave children and low‑income families paying the highest price through worsening health.
The call comes amid growing concern over the deepening food affordability crisis, following The Food Foundation’s latest Broken Plate report, which reveals that the poorest families with children would need to spend 85% of their disposable income to afford a healthy diet. The report also shows the price gap between healthier and less healthy food is now at its widest in more than a decade, raising further alarm at a time when food prices are expected to rise again in the coming months.
While families are facing real financial pressure, the letter highlights that rising food prices are being driven by global shocks, conflict, extreme weather and wider economic instability, not by public health regulation. The public recognises this: more than 80% of people want food companies to do more to make healthy food affordable, and only 3% of people believe health regulations are responsible for inflation.
The coalition signals that the Government must not repeat the mistakes of previous obesity‑policy delays, which have cost the country valuable time while diet‑related ill health has continued to rise and health inequalities have widened. New NHS figures show that more than 6,000 children were treated at specialist obesity clinics in England last year, including children as young as four.
The letter comes amid growing concern that key measures promised last year could be delayed or weakened – including applying the updated Nutrient Profiling Model to advertising and promotions restrictions, and introducing a world‑leading Healthy Food Standard, which would require large food businesses to report on and improve the healthiness of their sales.
Government analysis estimates that applying the updated Nutrient Profiling Model would deliver £36.9 billion in health and economic benefits over 25 years, reducing childhood obesity by 110,000 cases and adult obesity by 520,000 cases. Additional benefits from reducing the intake of free sugars include preventing dental caries in children and adults – dental decay is the most common cause of hospitalisations in young children. By contrast, the total implementation cost to industry over the same period is estimated to be less than £3 billion, much of which the Government confirms can be offset by promoting healthier products. The proposed mandatory Healthy Food Standard would help to create a level playing field for all large food businesses and would result in around £17 billion in annual cost savings to society, including saving the NHS £2 billion a year.
The organisations emphasise that there is no evidence that either policy would increase prices for consumers, and importantly, no evidence that removing them would reduce prices.
They also highlight that babies, children and families on the lowest incomes are most exposed to an unhealthy food environment, where healthier choices are often harder to access, less heavily promoted and less affordable.
Children living with excess weight are more likely to miss school, affecting their long‑term education and life chances. Adults living with excess weight face higher rates of sickness absence and unemployment, adding further pressure to families, employers and the NHS.
Read the Open Letter here
Katharine Jenner, Executive Director of the Obesity Health Alliance, explains:
The Government’s prevention moonshot risks failing before launch if the very policies needed to deliver it are watered down before they even begin.
Families are under huge financial pressure, but blaming health regulation for rising food prices is a distraction. There is no evidence these measures would push up prices – and no evidence that scrapping them would make food cheaper.
Weakening these measures now would be a false economy. It won’t make food cheaper, but it will drive up the long‑term costs of preventable illness – from various cancers, heart disease and type 2 diabetes to dental decay – for families and for the NHS.
This is a test of whether prevention is a serious plan or just a slogan. Ministers must stand firm, resist pressure to weaken these measures, and deliver on their promise to protect children’s health.”
Lauren Bowes Byatt, director of healthy life at Nesta, said:
“This government set out an ambitious plan to end the obesity epidemic, but there is now a risk that this becomes just another footnote of failure in public health. The Healthy Food Standard would help three million people live healthier lives and save our NHS a staggering £2 billion every year, without hitting business revenue or consumer pockets.
This is one of the single most impactful policies on the table to tackle obesity, but ministers must listen to the medical professionals and healthcare experts and act now to introduce this legislation within this Parliament before the opportunity is lost to further delay.”
Anna Taylor, Executive Director, The Food Foundation, said,
“Our Broken Plate report, published this week, shows that the price gap between healthier and less healthy food is the widest it’s been in over a decade and that the poorest families with children now need to spend 85% of their disposable income for a healthy diet. It is clear that the government’s priority needs to be on protecting people’s ability to afford healthy food. Stalling the policies on mandatory reporting of healthy sales and the updated nutrient profiling model isn’t going to address people’s ability to access and afford healthy food. It’ll only exacerbate health and dietary inequalities and put further pressure on the NHS.
“So it’s vital that we don’t see food price rises as a reason to soft pedal on some of those important steps which we need to be making to shift the food system to actually support public health.”
Professor David Strain, BMA Board of Science chair, said,
“Prevention must be at the heart of efforts to improve the nation’s health and reduce pressure on NHS services. Poor diet is a major driver of ill health, contributing to obesity and a range of serious conditions, including type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease and some cancers.
“Obesity is now one of the greatest contributors to the gap in healthy life expectancy between our most and least deprived communities. Children and families in these areas are often most affected by unhealthy food environments, where healthier choices can be harder to access, afford and sustain. Creating a healthier food environment is therefore an important part of tackling health inequalities and improving long-term health outcomes. Modern obesity treatments have an important role and should be available to those who need them. However, no healthcare system can treat its way out of an epidemic driven by the environments in which people live, work and learn.
“A healthier population is not only a health objective but an economic necessity. People who enjoy longer, healthier lives are better able to participate in education, employment and their communities. Delaying action now risks storing up greater health problems and costs in the future. The Government must remain focused on its commitment to prevention and take meaningful steps to support healthier lives for current and future generations.
Covered in the Grocer and Food Manufacture.
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