What action does the public think the government should take on tobacco, alcohol and unhealthy food?

England’s high burden of preventable ill health is still being driven by three leading risk factors: tobacco, alcohol and unhealthy food. Over the past decade, the government has focused on supporting individuals to change their behaviour, rather than taking population-level action to minimise people’s exposure to these risk factors in the first place, such as through marketing regulation, fiscal policy and licensing.

But both approaches – population-level action and individual support – are needed if this burden of preventable ill health is to be successfully reduced.

Recent developments in tobacco policy are a good example of such a twin-track approach. The previous government put in place additional funding for local services to help people quit smoking. This will now be paired with legislation preventing people from starting in the first place, with Labour committing to implementing the previous government’s ‘smokefree generation’ policy to ban tobacco sales to anyone born after 1 January 2009. 

In our most recent round of public polling with Ipsos, undertaken between 21 and 27 November 2024, we asked about a range of policies that have the potential to prevent ill health from tobacco, alcohol and unhealthy food. As with previous rounds, we were able to separate results by factors including respondent age, deprivation level and voting intention – including for the first time Reform UK.

Figure 1 illustrates how UK public support outweighs opposition across all public health interventions polled this time around, with some interesting differences by voting intention. We also include the most recent results from previous polling on public health policies that we did not repeat – for these, we do not have separate results for Reform UK.

Of particular note:

• Overall, 62% of the public support (and 18% oppose) introducing a tax on organisations that produce foods high in sugar or salt, with some of the revenue being used to fund fresh fruit and vegetables for low-income families.
• Overall public support for limiting fast food outlets near schools remains similar at 58% (with 16% opposing).
• For both policies, support is higher among people intending to vote Labour than Conservative, with the lowest support among people intending to vote Reform UK. However, support outweighs opposition across all parties. There is also greater support among people living in the least deprived areas compared with the most. 
• Overall public support for introducing minimum unit alcohol pricing is 46%, with 31% opposing the policy. 48% support banning the marketing of alcohol at sporting events, while 23% oppose. Support for alcohol policies is generally lower than policies targeting tobacco and unhealthy food. This may be due in part to limited national focus and communications on alcohol-related harms. For both alcohol policies asked about, the only net opposition by voting intention is among people intending to vote Reform UK. 
• Finally, we asked about extending the indoor smoking ban. Overall support is 73% (13% opposing) for extending the ban to outside spaces, including playgrounds, outside schools and hospitals, to protect children and vulnerable people. This includes net support across all voting intentions and deprivation quintiles, with the greatest support among people intending to vote Labour and Liberal Democrat, and people living in the least deprived quintile of the country. 
• There is also net support for extending the ban to outside spaces in the hospitality sector, including outdoor spaces in pubs, restaurants, bars, clubs and cafes (49% support, 33% oppose). This includes net support across all deprivation quintiles and voting intentions except people intending to vote Reform UK. 

With the Tobacco and Vapes Bill in progress, the government has already shown positive intent to take action on public health. However, they are yet to set out a comprehensive approach to obesity policy, and alcohol policy remains neglected.  

Our polling shows broad support for government interventions that represent a bolder national approach to tackling the leading risk factors for ill health. This bolder approach will be essential if Labour is to meet its ambitions to improve healthy life expectancy, drive economic growth and reduce inequalities. However, it is also important to note some differences by voting intention and deprivation that could inform how the government engages with different communities to mitigate any real or perceived risks of harm as part of any policy implementation.