Durham amongst top 3 authorities nationwide where the total savings and health benefits of a sugary drinks duty would be highest

New research, published by the Children's Food Campaign in association with University of Liverpool academic Brendan Collins and Food Active, shows that if the government introduced a 20 pence per litre sugary drinks duty in England, then the impact in North East England over twenty years would be to:

• reduce the cases of diabetes by nearly 3,000
• prevent over 500 cases of bowel cancer
• reduce strokes and cases of coronary heart disease by almost 2,000
• save the NHS over £0.85 million a year in healthcare costs for treating those diseases
• improve the quality of life for tens of thousands of residents

The impact on calorie reduction would be greatest in places such as Newcastle Upon Tyne and Middlesbrough, which have the highest relative proportion of younger demographics who typically consume the most sugary drinks. The local authorities in North East England set to gain the most total savings and health benefits from a sugary drinks duty are (in order): Durham, Northumberland and Sunderland  – due partly to their larger population sizes.

Liz Charles, spokesperson for Food Durham:

"We support the calls to introduce a duty on sugary drinks nationally as part of a wider set of policies needed to help our residents improve their diets. Sugary drinks add nothing to nutritional needs, contribute many empty calories, are a cause of dental decay, and are widely promoted to be attractive to children. This must change if we are to successfully tackle the problem of obesity and over-weight in our population."

Malcolm Clark, co-ordinator of the Children’s Food Campaign:

“Public health directors in North West England and in Cardiff, as well as the London Health Commission, have publicly backed a sugary drinks duty.  We hope this new research encourages public health directors in North East England to join their counterparts in calling for the government to introduce a nationwide duty.”

Table 1: impact of a sugary drinks duty in North East England

This table is in order of greatest health cost savings over a 20 year period

Table 2: Top 10 local authorities in England with greatest cost savings

This table is in order of greatest health cost savings over a 20 year period

Quality-adjusted life year (QALY) is a measure of the state of health of a person in which the benefits, in terms of length of life, are adjusted to reflect the quality of life. One QALY is equal to 1 year of life in perfect health. It is often measured in terms of the person's ability to perform the activities of daily life, free from pain and mental disturbance.

The Children's Food Campaign is a campaign of Sustain the alliance for better food and farming.

Full data sources and methodology can be viewed at www.childrenshealthfund.org.uk