Good Food Local moves to the North East

UK councils have an important role to play in creating a more healthy and sustainable food system so residents can access affordable, healthy and climate- and nature-friendly food. 

For over 10 years, Sustain has mapped and reported on Greater London’s borough-level commitments to healthy and sustainable food through the Good Food for All Londoners annual survey and report. A hugely effective tool for improving good food practice and policy among London councils, the survey and report act as an incentive to make progress, while providing guidance and a supportive network to help them along the way.

Thanks to funding from Impact on Urban Health, we are pleased to say that we are now rolling this approach out, starting in the North East. 

Joe Dunne, Chair of the Middlesbrough Food Partnership, says: “There is an extremely strong appetite for good food in the North East. The food partnerships have been working on the good food agenda for over 12 years. The North East has the perfect mechanism for collaboration on healthy and sustainable food issues that are best addressed on a regional rather than local scale.”

For the next three years, we will work closely with the Association of Directors of Public Health North East and food partnerships from the region to tailor the survey to their local context and begin benchmarking local authority action on good food.

We believe good food is food that is produced, processed, bought, sold and eaten in ways that provide social benefits and which contribute to thriving local economies that create good jobs and secure livelihoods. Good food should also enhance the health and variety of our diets. It should maintain the health of plants and animals, protect natural resources, such as water and soil, and help tackle climate change.

With a high density of food partnerships in the region, good engagement from councils on food work, and a diverse mix of geographies and councils, this is an excellent opportunity to understand how the benchmarking can work beyond London.  

Amanda Healy, Durham County Council’s director of public health and Chair of ADPH North East, said: “Across the North East councils have an important role to play in creating a more healthy and sustainable food system so residents can access affordable, healthy and climate and nature friendly food. To reduce health inequalities and close the gap between the most and least affluent people in our country, we need to understand the current situation within the North East in comparison to other regions. Benchmarking good food at a regional level will help to provide this understanding.”

Bella Driessen, Local Policy Coordinator at Sustain, says: 
“We are so pleased to be working with the North East on this project. We have seen the sheer power this benchmarking approach has to transform a council’s work on food, and we've watched some local authorities climb impressively up the rankings through learning from leading councils, and by accessing the network of peer-support built up around the survey and report. We can’t wait to see where the North East takes us!”

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