Extending sugar tax would save NHS £66bn, report says

Laura Donnelly

A SUGAR tax on sweets and chocolate could help save the NHS £66 billion, research suggests.

The Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) called on ministers to go further than the Government’s own obesity measures by extending its sugar tax – which is already applied to fizzy drinks – to cover unhealthy foods.

Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister, last month launched the Better Health campaign, designed to tackle Britain’s obesity crisis. Junk food adverts before the 9pm television watershed are to be banned along with confectionery stands next to store checkout tills.

However, the IPPR said more must be done to bring child obesity down to the low levels of the Eighties – a move that it says could save the NHS £66 billion in reduced healthcare over the course of the children’s lifetimes.

The think tank stated that fewer than 2 per cent of children had obesity in the Eighties but today one fifth of children entering secondary school are classified as medically obese, according to the data it analysed.

To ensure that the Government reaches its target of halving child obesity by 2030, the IPPR recommends that a levy of 8 per cent be applied to unhealthy foods which exceed a set “energy density”.

The report authors said that similar taxes on junk food in Mexico and Hungary had been successful in driving down consumption and it argued that it would provide an incentive to food producers to reformulate their products and make them healthier.

It also called for a healthy food subsidy scheme, worth £21 per week, for all children on free school meals, which could be redeemable for any essential foods, in an effort to recognise the demographic inequality at the heart of the obesity crisis.

Costing around £1.5 billion a year, the scheme would be funded by the levy on fattening food, the IPPR said.

Chris Thomas, the IPPR’S senior health fellow, said: “In July, the Government made welcome commitments to tackle obesity but, faced with the scale of the obesity epidemic, it was just one small step, not a giant leap.

“The disastrous impact of obesity on our health and society demands that we go further.”