In February 2026, the Government published the National Cancer Plan, the first dedicated cancer strategy for England in a decade. With a new Government now responsible for the Plan’s implementation, it is vital that the Plan remains a priority and that its ambitions are delivered at pace. In this series, we offer our perspective on a few key features within the Plan and what actions are needed to translate its commitments into genuine improvements for people affected by cancer.
In this article, Cancer Research UK Prevention Lead Kruti Shrotri explores why reducing obesity rates must be a national priority and what it will take to tackle the obesogenic environment.
A third of cancer cases in England are preventable. And with cancer cases on the rise, that statistic alone makes the case for prevention impossible to ignore.
Tobacco remains the leading cause of preventable cancer. But while smoking rates have fallen dramatically in recent decades, rates of overweight and obesity are going up. According to analysis by Cancer Research UK, almost 7 in 10 adults in the UK are overweight or obese. Among children in their final year of primary school in England, almost 4 in 10 are overweight or obese, with rates highest in the most deprived communities.
This matters because the evidence is clear: overweight and obesity increases the risk of at least 13 different types of cancer. And children who are obese are around five times more likely to be obese in adulthood, increasing their risk of cancer as adults.
Reducing obesity rates must be a national priority.
The National Cancer Plan rightly highlights the importance of cancer prevention. But reducing obesity rates requires action that reaches far beyond cancer services and even the wider health sector. It demands coordinated leadership across government, from education and housing to business, transport and beyond.
Successive governments have recognised the challenge. Between 1992 and 2020, 14 government-led obesity strategies were published in England alone. More recently, the 10 Year Health Plan set out the welcome ambition to ‘end the obesity epidemic’.
But rhetoric hasn’t been matched with enough action.
Weight-loss medications, including GLP-1 drugs, will play an important role in helping some people achieve healthier weights. But treatment alone won’t be enough to solve the obesity crisis, which has been decades in the making.
To make lasting progress, we need to prevent obesity in the first place.
The ‘obesogenic environment’ is complex to shift
Over the past four decades, the UK food environment has changed dramatically. Foods high in fat, salt and sugar (HFSS food) have become heavily marketed, widely available, and are often cheaper than healthier alternatives.
Combined with fewer opportunities for physical activity plus wider social and economic pressures, we find ourselves in an environment that makes it harder to keep a healthy weight. Public health experts call this the ‘obesogenic environment’.
Changing this environment will not be easy.
It means pulling multiple levers across government. Nationally, stronger restrictions on the marketing and promotion of unhealthy foods could help curb consumer demand, and healthier food could be made more affordable and accessible. Sustained education and campaigns could help improve public understanding of healthier diets.
Locally, communities could be given greater powers to limit the spread of fast-food outlets, particularly near schools. And better walking and cycling infrastructure, along with more green spaces, could support more active lifestyles.
The government has already taken some important steps towards this.
The Soft Drinks Industry Levy, introduced in 2018, drove a substantial reduction in the amount of sugar in many soft drinks. Restrictions on junk-food advertising on TV and online, first announced in 2020, are also predicted to have a positive impact.
But the scale of change has not matched the scale of the challenge. Loopholes introduced following industry lobbying have weakened the expected impact of advertising restrictions. Meanwhile, progress on another promising policy – to introduce mandatory reporting and targets on healthier food sales for large food companies – appears to have stalled, despite government commitment to deliver it through the 10 Year Health Plan.
Simply put, we are moving too slowly.
Tobacco control shows what’s possible
If tackling the obesogenic environment seems daunting, it is worth remembering that smoking rates once seemed just as difficult to shift.
In the 1950s, more than 60% of men and nearly 40% of women smoked, even after research had firmly established the link between tobacco and cancer.
Meaningful change did not happen overnight. It was the result of decades of sustained policy action.
TV advertising bans were introduced in 1965. Tobacco taxes increased throughout the 1980s. Public awareness campaigns and stop-smoking services expanded in the 2000s. In the last twenty years, the pace of policy change accelerated. Smoking was banned in enclosed public places, and tobacco companies were required to sell their products in plain, unbranded packaging to reduce their appeal.
