Takeaway food faces ‘Fat Tax’

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February 2, 2011

Takeaway outlets could be faced with a £1,000 ‘fat tax’ in a bid to help tackle the UK’s
ever rising obesity levels.

Oldham council in Manchester cooked up the idea after discovering that one in four
children living in the borough are obese.

This is higher than the national average of one in five children being obese .

In theory the so called “fat tax” would apply to any business seeking a licence to serve
takeaway food, be it a big chain fast food outlet like McDonald’s or even a local chippie.

A spokesperson at Oldham council commented: “Oldham has reached saturation point

with fast food outlets. It is not healthy for our residents and it is not healthy economically.”

The money raised by the ‘fat tax’ would be spent on schemes promoting healthy eating.

But some small businesses slammed the idea saying they were being victimised.

The “Fat Tax” will go to a full council meeting for approval later today. Oldham officials are
confident it will go through. “We will be doing everything in our powers to make sure it
goes through and are confident that it will,” said one.

If successful the scheme could be rolled out in other areas of the country.

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