Council taxpayers are likely to spend tens of millions of pounds more this year on tackling obesity, the Local Government Association (LGA) claims.
Spending on the growing obesity epidemic is set to exceed £127m this year, a 21% rise on the £105m spent by England’s councils in the previous year.
The figures follow calls by chief executive of NHS England, Simon Stevens, who earlier this month warned the NHS could go ‘bankrupt’ if the nation did not step up efforts to tackle obesity. His proposals included handing councils and mayors greater power over local approaches to fast food, alcohol and tobacco.
Almost 30% of two to 15 year olds in the UK are currently obese or overweight, with forecasts suggesting as many as half of the population could be obese by 2050.
Cllr Izzi Seccombe, Chair of the LGA’s community wellbeing board, said: ‘Our children deserve better than a future of poor health, but it is too late to act when the damage has already been done. Councils are already doing what they can, but they need to be properly resourced to make a real difference. The extra £22m funding that councils have committed to tackling obesity is enough to pay for over 700 social workers at a time when councils are experiencing 40% cuts.
‘The Government needs to make a significant injection of resource to help find ways to ensure we avoid an even worse situation in the next 30 years.
‘Councils are without doubt the best placed to tackle obesity before it becomes a problem, joining up services with leisure centres, transport, education about health and community run activity schemes.
‘Using money that the Government raises through the VAT from unhealthy food and drinks could directly transform the lives of three and a half million overweight young people and would be a much better use of funds rather than just boosting the Treasury pot.’
