23 May 2023 The Obesity Health Alliance urges the new Prime Minister to prioritise child health in their new manifesto
We at Food Active are proud members of the Obesity Health Alliance (OHA), alongside +50 leading charities, campaign groups & medical Royal Colleges. Today, we are supporting the OHA in launching their manifesto for the next General Election, which represents a massive opportunity to protect child health
The Obesity Health Alliance launches its Manifesto for the next General Election – highlighting the massive opportunity to protect child health. The next government can deliver this by building on the successes of the Soft Drinks Industry Levy and empowering local communities to make the places they live healthier.
The manifesto is orientated around three key themes, including:
- Prioritising child health, including delivering on existing commitments on obesity including the marketing and advertising of less healthy food and drink and launching an effective cross-government strategy to reduce health inequalities.
- Building on what works, including using the successful model of SDIL to design further fiscal measures that incentivise industry to sell healthier food and drink options and investing revenue raised from these fiscal measures, like SDIL, in funding policies to improve children’s health, especially for those on lower incomes.
- Empowering local communities, including investing in the local public health grant, increasing powers for local authorities to address less healthy food and drink advertising and utilising the planning system to encourage healthier environments.
Check out the manifesto here
Our Programme Lead, Nicola Calder responds:
We are delighted to see the publication of the Obesity Health Alliance’s Manifesto today. The next new Government have a golden opportunity to prioritise children’s health and start to fix our broken food system here in the UK, and the manifesto outlines how they can achieve this through buidling on our existing successes such as the Soft Drinks Industry Levy, empower local communities and deliver on existing commitments on obesity including the marketing and advertising of less healthy food and drink – actions which new polling data shows UK adults support.
We strongly encourage all political parties to engage in this manifesto in the run up to the General Election, and look forward to working with the new Government when they take office in 2025.
