Latest research from Imperial College reveal a fourfold rise in obese children cases with complications occurring at a younger age.
The cost to London’s NHS of overweight and obese children is estimated to be £2.3 annually and to the wider London economy a further £2bn.
London Assembly Member Jenny Jones’ unanimously agreed Assembly motion, in March 2013, urged the Mayor to implement the recommendations from the Academy of Medical Royal College’s ‘Measuring Up, The Medical Profession’s Prescription for the Nation’s Obesity Crisis’
London Assembly Member Jenny Jones said:
“Boris Johnson has a duty to cut health inequalities, but he refused to back restrictions of junk food and drink advertising to children or even to acknowledge their role in childhood obesity”
“The Mayor is failing to prioritise and put in place the resources necessary to tackle London’s obesity time bomb. His ‘2020 Vision’ reflects this void, providing no coherent vision. Instead he raises questions about the causes of obesity and suggests that it’s a lack of self-esteem”