Brighton and Hove has launched a voluntary sugar tax, becoming the first British city to do so.
The council has asked shops to charge an extra 10p on all sugary drinks, the proceeds of which will go to a children’s health and food education trust.
‘Over the years sugar has been creeping into our diet, sometimes in ways we don’t even suspect,’ Tom Scanlon, Brighton and Hove director of public health, told The Guardian.
‘We are consuming more sugar than ever before and this is having extremely serious effects on levels of tooth decay, obesity and diabetes.’
Sugar tax
The council says that from 2012-13 the cost for diet-related diseases to the NHS in Brighton and Hove was £80m.
For this reason, Brighton and Hove council is also looking to include healthy snacks in vending machines in local authority and health care buildings in the city, and introduce food education studies to every primary school.
‘This is exactly what we need to try to tackle the rise in obesity and diet-related disease,’ Jamie Oliver, who has been campaigning for the Government to introduce a sugar tax, said.
‘Today, studies show, that one in three of our children are leaving primary school overweight or obese and these children are likely to be the first generation that will have a shorter lifespan than their parents.’
#SugarSmartCity
Tom Scanlon, director of public health at Brighton and Hove, asked people to give their thoughts using the hashtag #SugarSmartCity.
‘Over the years sugar has been creeping into our diet, sometimes in ways we don’t even suspect,’ he said to The Guardian.
‘We are consuming more sugar than ever before and this is having extremely serious effects on levels of tooth decay, obesity and diabetes.’
