The true cost of the obesity crisis – and why weight-loss jabs may provide the answer

The cost of the UK’s ballooning obesity crisis has risen to a staggering £107bn each year, new figures show, with record levels of NHS spending pushing overstretched services to the brink.

- ALICJA HAGOPIAN REBECCA THOMAS

More than one in four adults are now obese - a level that has more than doubled since the 1990s - with UK rates now surpassing those of our European neighbours, as fast-food outlets line our high streets and most Britons say healthy food is too expensive.

And the picture is only set to get worse, as experts from The Lancet warn that 43 million adults will be overweight or obese by 2050, and obesity in young children is set to rise by 50 per cent unless urgent action is taken.

The obesity epidemic is already harming the economy, with 266,000 jobs lost through unemployment, sick days and early death, amounting to £24bn in lost economic productivity each year, according to financial analysts Frontier Economics for the social think tank Nesta.

Experts say weight-loss jabs could hold the key to turning things round, with 1.5 million people now thought to be using them, and the NHS’s top doctor, Stephen Powis, predicting that they could soon be one of the most commonly used drugs.

Calculations from Nesta show that the UK could save around £53bn a year, The Independent can reveal, by extending the provision of weight-loss jabs to an extra 150,000 people while also funding policy changes such as rules on the way retailers sell food.

“We can’t afford to kick the can down the road on tackling obesity any longer,” Hugo Harper, director of healthy life at Nesta, told The Independent. “Obesity is at the root of many of the UK’s health problems, including increasing the risk of cancer and diabetes, while costing our economy billions in lost productivity and NHS spending. This is only going to get worse without intervention, as obesity rates are set to rise.”