The NHS is to offer rewards to people who walk for half an hour a day, in the first scheme of its kind to pay Britons back for getting active.

NHS England will launch its “marathon a month” challenge early next year, asking participants to walk for around 30 minutes daily. Those who manage it every day will cover roughly 26 miles over the month, the distance of a marathon, logging their progress online or via a phone or smartwatch.

Complete the challenge and rewards follow, potentially including incentives and discounts, although the organising team has yet to confirm precisely what is on offer. Vouchers are one option under consideration, and the presence on the team of Sir Keith Mills, the founder of Air Miles and Nectar, suggests the architecture of Britain’s best-known loyalty schemes will be brought to bear on the nation’s step count.

Crucially for taxpayers, the NHS will not be footing the bill for the rewards. NHS England is covering the initial set-up, but the wider plan is to draw in philanthropic backing from major corporates as the scheme rolls out, with public and private sector partners running the programme. GPs and other health staff will be encouraged to promote it to patients.

The scheme is being developed with Sir Brendan Foster, the Olympic medallist and founder of the Great North Run, who was asked by NHS England to build a campaign to get people walking as part of the government’s 10-year health plan for England.

“I’m known for running, but the ambition here is far simpler. We just want people to walk. Simple,” he says.

The aim is to sign up more than 100,000 people, with daily stats recorded digitally. If the target is hit, Sir Brendan says it would count as the biggest marathon in history. He is banking on “streak” culture, the habit-forming mechanic behind Snapchat and Duolingo, to keep participants going.

The under-25s Business Matters spoke to were broadly upbeat. One said the gamified challenge would push her to be more active, admitting that not wanting to break a streak is a powerful motivator for her and her friends. Another, who already clocks up roughly a marathon’s worth of walking each month, said he would happily take a free reward for something he is already doing.

The numbers behind the initiative are stark. Physical inactivity is associated with one in six deaths, according to official public health guidance, and a person is classified as inactive if they do less than 30 minutes of moderate-intensity activity per week. Sport England’s Active Lives survey showed that in the year to November 2025 nearly a quarter of adults, around 12 million people, fell into that category.

“If someone walks 30 minutes five times a week, they could gain up to four extra years of healthy life,” Sir Brendan says.

For employers, the scheme lands at a moment when workforce health has become a boardroom issue. Business groups have already backed the Keep Britain Working review amid mounting fiscal pressure from economic inactivity, and there has been a marked rise in UK employers using wellbeing strategies to lift engagement and cut absenteeism. A state-backed incentive scheme that nudges staff out of the door at lunchtime may prove a useful, and free, addition to the corporate wellbeing toolkit.

The potential savings for the health service are significant too, at a time when technology is already being deployed to claw back hundreds of millions in NHS costs.

Not everyone believes incentives alone will shift the dial. Sonia Pombo, head of research and impact at Action on Salt & Sugar, says: “Encouraging people to build regular movement into their daily lives can support better health, and making it simple, achievable and rewarding may help more people get started. But we cannot rely on individual behaviour change alone. If the government is serious about improving the nation’s health, particularly for children, it must pair initiatives like this with stronger prevention measures.”

Full details of the scheme, including how to sign up, will be released in the coming months.

Amy Ingham

Amy is a newly qualified journalist specialising in business journalism at Business Matters with responsibility for news content for what is now the UK’s largest print and online source of current business news.