Ban fast-food chains near schools to slash childhood obesity, says UK lobby group

12 Nov 2019 --- Agri-food organization Sustain is calling on the next UK government to plan policies that will restrict hot food takeaways near schools. The move follows a report called Hot Food Takeaways: Planning a route to healthier communities which was induced after fast-food giants such as McDonalds and KFC reportedly eyed “aggressive” expansion plans with 800 new UK sites. The country is making moves to tackle childhood obesity, yet evidence from some local authorities shows that even the “limited powers they have are being eroded,” the group says. In response to this, Sustain calls for measures such as restricting sales of unhealthy food to children on the school run.

Taking note of the severity of childhood obesity, the UK government has made several moves to tackle it. In London, Mayor Khan implemented a ban on fast food advertisements across the capital’s transportation network. Meanwhile, in March, the government also announced plans to ban junk food ads before 9 pm, yet the measure is still under review.

“Planning policies to restrict new hot food takeaways near schools are one of the few concrete ways local authorities have to stop their areas becoming even more saturated with unhealthy food. Yet even these tools are coming under attack, with local authorities lacking capacity to provide adequate evidence to stand up to the resources of multinational chains. Unlike government’s aims to halve child obesity – it’s almost as if these businesses want to double child obesity by 2030,” says Ben Reynolds, Deputy Chief Executive of Sustain, who produced the report.  

Across the UK, young people are growing up in places saturated with cheap, unhealthy food.“We recommend that the next Government gives local authorities more powers to decide what happens in their localities. Current planning policies only focus on new takeaways near schools. If we are serious about tackling child obesity, we should also be looking at existing takeaways and other outlets selling unhealthy food to kids around school hours,” he adds.

Sustain is not the only group to flag the issue, however. Professor Dame Sally Davies’s final independent report spotlighted childhood obesity. It followed the end of her eight-year tenure as Chief Medical Officer for England and Chief Medical Adviser to the UK government. She noted that Brexit could present an opportunity to review value-added tax (VAT) rates to rebalance the cost of food and drink in favor of health.

Expansion plans or a strain on health
Sustain’s analysis found that McDonalds and KFC are allocating millions of pounds to expansion plans, in stark contrast to government ambitions to halve child obesity by 2030. With approximately 70,000 takeaways across the UK, and hot food takeaways tending to provide more unhealthy food, the authors argue that planning tools alone can only go so far and that the next Government must look into more radical options to improve the healthiness of what is on offer if it is serious about tackling child obesity. 

“Across the UK, young people are growing up in places saturated with cheap, unhealthy food. Our work in South London tells us that unhealthy takeaways are concentrated in lower-income neighborhoods; that children go to them primarily as a place to socialize; and that many aggressively market ‘school kids’ discounts,” notes Kieron Boyle, CEO at Guy’s and St Thomas’ Charity.

“The report from Sustain sets out case studies from across the UK with practical examples of what can be done to tackle this problem. It also puts a spotlight on some of the commercial interests using arguments reminiscent of those from ‘Big Tobacco’ to maintain the unhealthy status quo,” Boyle adds.

Central Government recommends using planning policies to control access to unhealthy food are adopted by local Councils, yet some are being withdrawn under pressure from objections by takeaways chains, and many more now fear the financial implications of pursuing these policies, according to the report.

“In Nottingham, we are aware of the knock-on effect child obesity can have on health in later life. With more than 350 takeaways in the city, we wanted to include a policy in our emerging local plan to control new applications for fast-food outlets that were within 400m of a school,” highlights Paul Seddon, Director of Planning & Regeneration at Nottingham City Council.

“Our policy was challenged by two major fast-food chains and the planning inspector decided that there was insufficient ‘locally-specific evidence’ to keep it. This is one less tool we have to try and combat childhood obesity,” he says.

Further measures to tackle child obesity
As well as providing a guide to what evidence local areas need to collect to support and defend planning policies to restrict new hot food takeaways, the report also makes a series of recommendations on planning, design and licensing to tackle child obesity. 

Among other measures the report suggests: national government support for local areas to increase the adoption of planning restrictions; Exploring the impact of restrictions on the sale of unhealthy food to minors under 16 on school days; Reviewing residential space standards to ensure houses have sufficient space for food preparation, cooking, dining and storage.

Edited by Kristiana Lalou