Change4Life government funding pulled

Change4Life

Change4Life, the Labour government's campaign to promote healthier eating and living, is to have its funding pulled by the new coalition government.

Speaking at the UK Faculty of Public Health's annual conference, new Health Secretary Andrew Lansley told attendees that the campaign should now be supported by businesses rather than the Government.

Instead of the government paying for the £75 million marketing budget for the campaign, Lansley hinted that it should be the drinks industry footing the bill. While this may be pie-in-the-sky dreaming from the coalition government, that producers of soft drinks would actually want to get involved and pay to stop people drinking their own products, Lansley did promise "a new approach to public health."

The new approach

He stated the new government would aim to use more social media to get the Change4Life message across, rather than traditional advertising campaigns and make the scheme "less a government campaign, more a social movement", with No. 10 asking charities, local authorities and the commercial sector to get involved.

In return for ‘fast food' producers backing the scheme, Lansley stated that the government might not seek stricter regulation of food and drink advertising and marketing.

"We have to make Change4Life less a government campaign, more a social movement. Less paid for by government, more backed by business. Less about costly advertising, more about supporting family and individual responses," Lansley stated.

"I will now be pressing them [the commercial sector] to provide actual funding behind the campaign, and they need to do more," he said. "If we are to reverse the trends in obesity, the commercial sector needs to change their business practices, including how they promote their brands and product reformulation."

However, Lansley did add that "I have been impressed how much [Change4Life] has achieved to date...particularly the way it has brought so many people together - healthcare professionals, teachers, charities, businesses, and the thousands of volunteers who have added their support."

So at least the three year scheme hasn't been a complete waste of time...

While the idea of getting food companies to financially back the scheme has been dismissed as nonsense by many, Julian Hunt, director of communications at industry trade body the Food and Drink Federation, has been more positive.

Speaking to The Guardian, Hunt said, "We look forward to working with the Department of Health to bring the responsibility deal to life. We believe our members have already shown that they can make a real difference to the public health agenda. We agree that in complex debates such as obesity the best solutions will be delivered through a shared social responsibility and not state regulation."

Time will tell whether the firms go beyond platitudes and actually put money into the scheme...

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