Leading medical bodies are calling
for a 20p-per-litre levy on soft drinks to be included in this year's Budget.
More than 60 organisations,
including the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, are backing the
recommendation by food and farming charity Sustain.
They say it would raise £1bn a year in duty to fund free fruit and meals
in schools to improve children’s health.
The soft drinks industry says
raising taxation is unnecessary.
At first I thought this was a
little extreme, but having thought about it the fact that this idea was
suggested in the first place highlights the scale of the problem.
It also shows that the current
measures in place simply aren’t working, and if this is a way to really start
to address and change the problems caused by childhood obesity then surely it’s
worth a try.
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