It seems fair to say this government, turning one year old this week, has not yet achieved a reputation for speedy resolution of major national crises. Yet within the new 10 Year Health Plan is a radical plan – to make Britain “fat free” by 2035.
Tackling obesity. It’s something every government since the early 1990s has tried, but failed, to do. Rates of the disease have doubled in just a few decades, and food-related diseases such as Type 2 Diabetes, heart disease and cancer have also skyrocketed. Our diets are fast overtaking tobacco as the leading driver of preventable disease and early death.
A few years ago, I analysed all 689 government obesity policies to find out why they have – collectively – failed so catastrophically. One of the key reasons is that policies rarely get implemented in full. The vast majority of obesity policies over the last 30 years have been derailed, delayed, diluted, discarded or have vanished into thin air. Even the best ideas rarely worked because they were never given the chance to work. Politics gets in the way of policy.
Keen to help future governments avoid such mistakes, I teamed up with Henry Dimbleby – who led the government-commissioned National Food Strategy – to find out why the politics of food and health policy are so troublesome and what can be done to make the politics work.
Politicians who hadn’t been bold wished they had done more
We interviewed 20 prime ministers, health secretaries and other senior politicians from the last 30 years including Tony Blair, David Cameron, Sadiq Khan, Boris Johnson and Nick Clegg. We published our findings in a practical political manual for today’s politicians called Nourishing Britain: A Political Manual to Improve the Nation’s Health along with the interview transcripts in full (which – in case of any doubt – provide a rollicking read in themselves).
One of the clearest instructions politicians gave to their successors was to ‘be bold’, act fast and not leave office regretting you hadn’t done more. Politicians who hadn’t been bold wished they had done more. Those who had acted felt immensely proud and profited from public popularity, like George Osborne who introduced the Soft Drinks Industry Levy.
For the 10 Year Health Plan to work, the Prime Minister and Health Secretary Wes Streeting must implement fast. “Stop faffing around and get on with it”, urged former public health minister Seema Kennedy. What Keir and Wes can’t do is more delay. But the signs in this department are not very positive. In May this year, the government announced a further delay to the junk food advertising restrictions that were due to come into force this October.
The benefit of acting early is you can show results long before the next election. Is it even possible, though? Yes it is.
Labour Mayor of London Sadiq Khan explained that his 2019 policy of banning junk food adverts across Transport for London showed results in just three years: “evidence shows it’s working. Research shows it’s been linked to 94,867 fewer cases of obesity, 2,857 cases of diabetes prevented or delayed, and 1,915 fewer cases of cardiovascular disease. It is also expected to save the NHS £218 million over the lifetime of the current population.”
Making the politics work for public health policy and achieving results won’t be easy. Politicians will have to overcome the four major barriers identified in Nourishing Britain: nanny state accusations, industry lobbying and fear of over-regulating business, the threat of other policy priorities knocking health off the agenda, and difficulty knowing where to begin with such a complex, sprawling issue like obesity.
We must resist the silver bullet siren calls of weight loss drug
Government must also resist the silver bullet siren calls of weight loss drugs. Health Secretary Wes Streeting claimed the UK will be “fat free” by 2035 with plans to give weight loss drugs to “everyone who needs them”.
Treatments like this are indeed crucial, but incredibly expensive for the taxpayer – particularly if taken for life – and people need to live in conditions that make being healthy easy. Weight loss drugs alone won’t fix that.
Nothing less than a drastic transformation of our food system will be required so that nourishing food becomes the most affordable, accessible and convenient for everyone. Especially for those on low incomes.
People want the government to go big on food and health, and great things can be achieved through the 10 Year Health Plan, but to do so politicians must listen to their predecessors: be bold, implement fast and don’t reach next election wishing you had done more.
Dolly van Tulleken is a policy consultant
