In England, almost two thirds of people are living with excess weight or obesity. The statistics are similar for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

We know that cuts lives short - alongside smoking, it’s a leading cause of preventable death. It costs the NHS £19 billion a year, and even hampers the economy - to the tune of £16 billion a year in productivity losses.

But there are steps that could be taken - if there was the political will.

We believe that well chosen and proportionate policies would incentivise food retailers to sell healthier products and improve the population's health.

However, politicians seem wary of requiring the food industry to reform, despite the success of previous interventions such as the soft drinks industry levy.

Our latest research suggests that politicians needn’t be hesitant - the public supports action. We found that most of the public are concerned about their own weight and the majority would support the actions needed to make the nation's diets healthier.

As part of a wider study, Nesta and BIT asked a nationally representative UK sample of over 5,000 people what their current weight was and what their ideal weight would be.

The results were clear - a majority said they wanted to lose weight.

67% of those surveyed wanted to lose weight and, on average, people wanted to lose 9.2kg.

But we found big differences between genders and between people of different weights.

Men wanted to lose more weight than women - wanting to drop 11.7kg compared to a little over half that for women (7.2kg).

People living with obesity wanted to lose the most weight, 29kg on average.

This was followed by those who fell within the criteria for being overweight. They wanted to lose 10.9kg on average.

People already at a healthy weight broadly wanted to remain the same, with the average desired change actually being to gain weight - approximately a kilo.

Finally, those classed as underweight wanted to put on an average of 15.4kg

Survey after survey has found that the majority of people in the UK endorse government interventions designed to reduce the prevalence of obesity.

In October 2024, Nesta commissioned Opininum to survey a nationally representative sample of over 2,000 people in the UK about several potential interventions in our food environment.

The food environment is the world around us that shapes our eating decisions, such as locations of stores and products, how much food costs, and how it’s advertised. It determines what options we see and influences how affordable or appealing those options are.

The results of our survey were unambiguous; we found clear public support for government action, with every policy receiving net public support (more people supporting the policy than opposing it).

Our survey found that many of the policies Nesta identified as having the most impact in our blueprint to halve obesity were also popular policies with the public.

Banning junk food advertising and mandatory targets for large supermarkets are likely to have a very high impact on obesity rates in the UK and both receive strong backing, with 29% and 23% net support respectively.

A salt and sugar tax, identified as a high impact policy in the blueprint, receives 14% net support.

These findings are consistent with previous polls. Almost every single food environment policy in almost every survey receives net support. Our own past work, and polling by the Health Foundation, Obesity Health Alliance, and Public Health Wales, all found support for every food environment policy surveyed.

Backing for these policies is also strong across large parts of the political spectrum.

Our Opinium survey found net public support for food environment policies among Conservative, Labour, Liberal Democrat, and Green voters. Five of the seven proposed policies were also supported by Reform party voters.

While Conservative and Reform voters showed lower levels of support compared to other parties, most policies still maintained majority backing.

Whilst some caution should be applied to the findings for smaller parties due to relatively smaller sample size, the direction of sentiment is clear - these are not unpopular policies.

Those who intended to vote Labour, Conservative and Liberal Democrat all showed net-support for policies surveyed in the Obesity Health Alliance’s 2023 poll. The same was also true for the food environment policies surveyed by the Health Foundation last year.

No matter the political allegiance, there appears to be support for action on the food environment.

There’s now no doubt where the UK public stands on this issue. They want the government to make it easier for people to access healthy food and stop having unhealthy food foisted upon them.

We now know that people want to lose weight and they support government interventions to help them do it.

We also know that it is possible to reduce rates of obesity and excess weight at a population level. A reduction of just 216 calories per day to the intake of people living with obesity and excess weight would halve obesity in the UK. This is the difference between a large and a small portion of McDonalds fries or one less Mars Bar a day.

Most importantly, we know how, and how not, to get there.

Since 1992, the UK government has tried 689 obesity policies, mostly shifting the responsibility onto individuals and relying on voluntary measures for industry, and yet obesity rates continue to rise. It's time for a new approach that doesn't just tell people to eat less and move more. It’s time for an approach that works.

Nesta’s blueprint to halve obesity has analysed the likely impact of over 30 policies and it identified the policies most likely to make the greatest dent in the prevalence of obesity. The groundwork has been done and we know categorically that the public supports action.

It’s now time for the UK and devolved governments to act.