In January 2008, the UK government published its obesity strategy, ‘Healthy Weight, Healthy Lives’, which called for a multifaceted approach to make healthy choices easier. One strand of this strategy is the provision of £30 million to encourage schemes to make everyday life in urban areas a more healthy experience. From 9 June, towns are being given the opportunity to bid for up to £5 million from the fund to deliver innovative strategies to improve the health of their inhabitants, to become ‘healthy towns’.
Schemes that are successful at attracting funding are likely to be those that increase access to health for all in the community (in particular, those that go some way to overcoming health inequalities), and those that impact upon other policy priorities, such as reducing carbon emissions. This could be through encouraging physical activity (such as bike lanes, or walking promotion) or improving diet (such as improving access to local, healthy foods).
Towns must submit an outline plan by 11 July this year, and those who are successful in stage one will then go on to the next stage, submitting a more detailed proposal and delivery plan by September. The money will be invested over three years, and the local areas will be expected to match any resources they receive from the government.
Source: Department of Health website, 9 June 2008