Councils should be given powers to ban junk food advertising near schools, nurseries and children’s centres, town hall leaders have said.
The Local Government Association (LGA), which represents 370 councils in England and Wales, said town halls “urgently” needed new ways to combat rising rates of childhood obesity.
The Government’s own childhood obesity strategy, which is expected to include new crackdowns on marketing to children, has been repeatedly delayed and is not expected before the summer.
One in five 10 and 11-year-olds are obese, according to the most recent figures from the National Childhood Measurement Programme, and many more are overweight.
A recent University of Stirling study found that three quarters of all food and drink advertisements – including outdoor billboards – seen by children are for unhealthy products. The study also found that children were highly susceptible to advertising, with nearly half saying they had bought one or more food or drink item in response to seeing an advert.
Councillor Richard Kemp, deputy chair of the LGA’s community wellbeing board, said that giving councils direct power to control advertising would help tackle the “epidemic” of childhood obesity. Currently, councils must apply to the Secretary of State for powers, and often face a lengthy period of consultation before any decision.
“We need to make changes to our environment if we are to fight obesity, and although this won’t solve the obesity crisis by itself, being able to limit children’s exposure to unhealthy food products would be an important step forward,” Mr Kemp said. “It is not right when we are trying to educate children around the importance of maintaining a healthy diet, that at the same time they are subjected to a bombardment of junk food advertising.”
