Britons spend £80bn a year on junk food, alcohol and tobacco

Firms are earning £53bn a year from UK sales of tobacco, junk food and excessive alcohol, and their consumption is contributing to Britain's rising tide of illness, according to a new report.

- Denis Campbell

The figures prompted a coalition of health, medical and children's organisations to demand an urgent crackdown on "the irresponsible behaviour of health-harming industries".

The government's failure properly to regulate those industries is damaging public health, adding to the strain on the NHS and causing a £31bn hit to the economy, they added. They are making vast profits by bombarding consumers with relentless marketing and deliberately obstructing efforts by the government to restrict their activities, such as seeking to discredit scientific evidence of harm.

The report was drawn up by health organisations and the economics consultancy Landman Economics. It is the first to estimate exactly how much money people in Britain are spending on "risky consumption" products that evidence shows are or can be bad for human health.

It found that consumers spend a staggering £81.5bn a year on unhealthy products, from which the Treasury makes £28.8bn through VAT receipts.

The research was undertaken by the Obesity Health Alliance (OHA), Alcohol Health Alliance (AHA) and Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) in conjunction with Landman Economics. They calculated that 28.8% of all food bought by UK households are foodstuffs which are unhealthy because they breach government dietary guidelines for fat, salt or sugar (HFSS). Those sales together earn the food industry £34.2bn.