Following a vote last night, we're celebrating Kingston Council’s bold new policy banning junk food advertising across its public spaces, marking another significant milestone in our fight to create healthier food environments for children.

The new restriction is a major win for young people’s health and a direct response to growing calls for action to combat commercial pressures from big food businesses on children.

18-year-old Oli, a Bite Back youth campaigner from Surrey who recently attended a council policy meeting, said:

“I hang out regularly in Kingston — meeting mates, grabbing food and going shopping. It’s a spot where young people go to study, or chill. But the junk food ads? They’re everywhere. I’ve honestly been shocked by how intense it is. It feels like a full on bombardment of unhealthy food marketing — you are just trying to go about your day, and boom, there’s another ad telling you to grab junk food. You can’t escape it.

“That’s why this move by Kingston Council is such a big deal. It’s a proper turning point. For once, a place I go to all the time is saying: we care more about young people’s health and we are prepared to take action. That gives me real hope that other councils will follow suit.”

We have campaigned for the removal of high fat, salt and sugar (HFSS) advertising from public spaces for a long time, citing its direct link to health-related illness. Right now, over a third of 10/11-year-olds leave primary school at risk of food related ill health in their future, including type 2 diabetes and heart disease, in part due to a constant exposure to unhealthy food marketing.

The new Kingston policy follows similar action by other councils, including Bedford, most recently. This reflects a growing recognition that the advertising environment contributes directly to health inequalities. In poorer areas, junk food ads appear up to six times more often than in wealthier neighbourhoods, according to our latest research.

In April this year, backed by Impact on Urban Health, we secured billboards across London to block junk food adverts. We placed 365 billboards — one for each day of the year — in high-traffic areas across the capital’s Lambeth and Southwark boroughs, including London Bridge Station, with one clear message: “We’ve bought this ad space so the junk food giants couldn’t – we’re giving kids a commercial break.”

While Kingston’s move is bold, we know that local councils cannot act alone. The government must introduce national regulations to protect children on all forms of outdoor advertising, including private spaces not controlled by councils. London’s Transport for London (TfL) policy has already demonstrated that such policies can succeed with no loss to advertising revenue. TfL’s experience is proof that healthier advertising environments are possible without financial trade-offs.

Our latest research in partnership with the University of Liverpool further underscores this need. The study, which analysed 859 ads in London, Liverpool, Birmingham and Newcastle, found that 57% of food and drink ads were for HFSS products, and these were more common in deprived areas, compounding inequality.

Following the Mayor of London’s HFSS advertising ban on the TfL network in 2019, Southwark introduced its own local policy. As a result, it now has the lowest rate of unhealthy food advertising among the cities studied, with just 38% of food adverts promoting HFSS products, compared to 77% in Newcastle.

Additionally, our analysis of ad spend data showed that in 2024, food and drink companies spent over £400 million on street advertising. The top 10 spenders included McDonald’s, PepsiCo, KFC, Coca-Cola, Mars, Mondelez and Red Bull.

For more information, interview opportunities, videos and photography: Henry Makiwa (henry.makiwa@biteback2030.com / 07523681057)