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The Government must “stand up” to the food industry after decades of failure to tackle obesity that is costing the country tens of billions a year, MPs have said.

All outdoor advertising of junk food should be banned and front-of-pack labelling should be mandatory to tackle England’s obesity epidemic, the Health and Social Care Committee said.

It said its proposals, which include mandatory reporting and targets for supermarkets, backed up with penalties, on the amount of healthy food they sell, aimed to fix a food environment that pushes consumers towards high fat, sugar and salt (HFSS) products, which are typically cheaper than nutritious food.

The proposals include new planning policies to stop fast food outlets opening close to schools, and improvements to the NHS’s Healthy Start cards, given to pregnant women and parents of young children to buy fruit and vegetables.

MPs challenged the Government to be “more courageous” in the face of industry lobbying against restrictions, which had meant that attempts to tackle obesity through food policy “have continually failed”.

Health and Social Care Committee chairwoman Layla Moran said: “When we say the ‘food environment’, we mean the constant bombardment of promotions and adverts we see and hear in our daily lives – on our screens, on children’s journeys home from school, as we set foot in shops and queue for the checkout.

“The central message of this report is that we need to tackle England’s escalating obesity crisis through prevention.

“That means bearing down on environmental factors that push people to eat unhealthily, that coerce struggling families to buy their children products that fill them up without nourishing them.

“That is why the Government’s food policy needs an overhaul. Perversely, the worst options are the cheapest while the healthiest are harder to access.

“Attitudes of obesity being purely down to the individual failings are outdated and deny the reality of those living with obesity and excess weight in this country needs robust challenge.”

She added: “We ask this Government to be bold, not to fudge and delay food restrictions.

“While we acknowledge the costs of policy changes to the food industry, these are marginal compared to the huge costs of inaction on obesity to society, the economy and the health service.

“The real cost is measured in how many people suffer preventable diseases linked to being overweight or malnourished.

“The Government needs to dig deep and prioritise the long-term health of generations to come.”

In 2024, 30% of adults in England were living with obesity, a further 36% were overweight, and 28% of children aged 13 to 15 were overweight or obese, according to NHS England.

Obesity costs the UK £74.3 billion per year, including £11.4 billion to the NHS, according to research by Frontier Economics cited by the Department of Health and Social Care.

Between August 2024 and July 2025, nearly £680 million was spent on advertising food and soft drinks through TV, radio and outdoors.

Products such as sweets, chocolates and crisps accounted for 29% of that spending, while fruit and vegetables accounted for 3%, the committee’s report said.

Food and Drink Federation chief scientific officer Kate Halliwell said: “It’s good that the committee acknowledged the progress manufacturers are making to reduce salt, sugar and calories in everyday food, and to increase fibre.

“We appreciate their support too for a scheme to help smaller businesses change recipes to make products healthier. However, we agree that more still needs to be done and so we support the committee’s call for government to bring forward plans to introduce mandatory reporting of healthier food sales.

“However, we don’t agree that food and drink manufacturers should be excluded from discussions on health policy.

“Government needs advice from the people who make food to understand if new policies are workable in practice. This expertise doesn’t exist in government departments.”

An Advertising Association spokesman said: “This report represents a significant missed opportunity to put forward policies which would bring together government, industry, and the third sector to tackle this major policy issue.

“Decades of research across multiple academic disciplines has repeatedly shown that advertising does not contribute to long-term changes in obesity or BMI and that advertising restrictions do not improve the nation’s health.

“The focus should be on addressing the real drivers of poor health including inequality, affordability, and accessibility of healthy food.”