Slough in top 3 authorities nationwide where the impact of a sugary drinks duty would be most significant

A sugary drinks duty could save the South East of England NHS and public health budgets over £47 million

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 the South East of England over twenty years would be to:

reduce the cases of diabetes by over 7,500
prevent almost 1,500 cases of bowel cancer
reduce strokes and cases of coronary heart disease by over 5,000
save the NHS over £2.35 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 Slough, Milton Keynes and Bracknell Forest, which have the highest relative proportion of younger demographics who typically consume the most sugary drinks. The local authorities in the South East of England set to gain the most total savings and health benefits from a sugary drinks duty are (in order): Medway Towns, Milton Keynes, Southampton and Brighton and Hove – due partly to their larger population sizes. View the impact in your local area www.childrenshealthfund.org.uk

Jannette Smith, spokesperson for the Brighton and Hove Food Partnership:

“We support the moves for a sugary drinks duty as one of the range of public health options to improve the health of Brighton and Hove residents, and everyone across the region. This initiative will help us to further embed our nutritional messages in our range of healthy weight programmes for adults and children.”

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 the South East of England to join their counterparts in calling for the government to introduce a nationwide duty.”

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

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

Area Name	Reduction in calories per day-mid	Estimated change in diabetes cases over 20 years	Estimated change in Stroke/CHD cases/year	Estimated change in Cancer cases over 20 years	Estimated QALYs gained over 20 years	Total health cost savings over 20 years
Medway Towns UA	6.74	-301	-205	-54	5070	£1,835,642
Milton Keynes UA	6.84	-231	-157	-41	3884	£1,406,256
Southampton UA	6.69	-218	-148	-39	3665	£1,326,790
Brighton and Hove UA	6.66	-215	-146	-38	3609	£1,306,593
Portsmouth UA	6.71	-194	-132	-35	3264	£1,181,843
Aylesbury Vale CD	6.70	-154	-105	-28	2595	£939,568
Swale CD	6.60	-154	-105	-28	2588	£937,038
New Forest CD	6.10	-153	-104	-27	2577	£933,196
Basingstoke and Deane CD	6.66	-152	-103	-27	2549	£922,991
Maidstone CD	6.55	-149	-102	-27	2514	£910,060
Isle of Wight UA	6.22	-147	-100	-26	2472	£894,947
Arun CD	6.00	-142	-97	-25	2389	£864,878
West Berkshire UA	6.67	-141	-96	-25	2364	£855,948
Thanet CD	6.37	-137	-93	-25	2307	£835,108
Canterbury CD	6.44	-137	-93	-24	2304	£834,067
Wycombe CD	6.63	-133	-91	-24	2237	£809,866
Wealden CD	6.25	-132	-90	-24	2225	£805,514
Cherwell CD	6.62	-130	-88	-23	2183	£790,303
Reading UA	6.74	-129	-88	-23	2173	£786,605
Wokingham UA	6.65	-125	-85	-22	2100	£760,502
Reigate and Banstead CD	6.55	-122	-83	-22	2054	£743,749
Eastleigh CD	6.55	-121	-82	-22	2035	£736,805
Tonbridge and Malling CD	6.63	-118	-81	-21	1989	£720,168
Mid Sussex CD	6.52	-118	-81	-21	1988	£719,730
Ashford CD	6.58	-118	-80	-21	1977	£715,812
Horsham CD	6.46	-116	-79	-21	1958	£709,028
Havant CD	6.36	-116	-79	-21	1953	£707,174
Slough UA	6.98	-115	-79	-21	1942	£703,040
Crawley CD	6.74	-114	-78	-20	1915	£693,466
Guildford CD	6.58	-113	-77	-20	1906	£689,949
Dover CD	6.40	-110	-75	-20	1858	£672,635
Gravesham CD	6.65	-110	-75	-20	1848	£669,118
Test Valley CD	6.47	-108	-74	-19	1817	£657,873
Bracknell Forest UA	6.82	-106	-72	-19	1788	£647,225
Windsor and Maidenhead UA	6.60	-106	-72	-19	1777	£643,537
Fareham CD	6.39	-105	-72	-19	1771	£641,079
Sevenoaks CD	6.45	-105	-72	-19	1765	£639,201
Oxford CD	6.75	-104	-71	-19	1757	£636,028
Dartford CD	6.70	-102	-69	-18	1712	£619,830
Shepway CD	6.36	-100	-68	-18	1682	£609,046
South Oxfordshire CD	6.49	-99	-68	-18	1672	£605,276
Elmbridge CD	6.56	-99	-68	-18	1670	£604,631
Worthing CD	6.30	-96	-66	-17	1620	£586,554
Vale of White Horse CD	6.54	-95	-65	-17	1596	£577,977
Tunbridge Wells CD	6.63	-94	-64	-17	1587	£574,414
Chichester CD	6.10	-94	-64	-17	1576	£570,757
Spelthorne CD	6.49	-93	-63	-17	1565	£566,574
Waverley CD	6.49	-93	-63	-17	1563	£565,778
West Oxfordshire CD	6.46	-92	-63	-16	1551	£561,574
Eastbourne CD	6.25	-91	-62	-16	1537	£556,479
Rushmoor CD	6.78	-91	-62	-16	1532	£554,763
East Hampshire CD	6.47	-91	-62	-16	1530	£554,039
Hastings CD	6.53	-91	-62	-16	1529	£553,721
Lewes CD	6.25	-89	-61	-16	1504	£544,446
Gosport CD	6.54	-86	-59	-15	1446	£523,681
Winchester CD	6.49	-82	-56	-15	1383	£500,653
Woking CD	6.60	-79	-54	-14	1330	£481,546
Runnymede CD	6.48	-77	-52	-14	1291	£467,427
Tandridge CD	6.50	-76	-52	-14	1277	£462,462
Rother CD	5.97	-75	-51	-13	1261	£456,432
Hart CD	6.60	-74	-50	-13	1240	£448,973
Surrey Heath CD	6.60	-72	-49	-13	1214	£439,436
Mole Valley CD	6.40	-67	-45	-12	1120	£405,333
Adur CD	6.27	-64	-44	-12	1082	£391,855
Epsom and Ewell CD	6.58	-62	-42	-11	1048	£379,308
Chiltern CD	6.48	-62	-42	-11	1041	£376,984
South Bucks CD	6.44	-48	-33	-9	808	£292,595
Totals	6.52	-7736	-5273	-1383	130132	£47,115,879

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

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Published Monday 16 March 2015

Sugary Drinks Duty: Support the campaign for a sugary drinks duty, to pay for programmes to improve childrens health and protect the environment they grow up in.

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