Politics Home | If ministers want to ease the cost of living, they must stop policies colliding at the checkout

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But if ministers want to ease pressure at the checkout, they must avoid policies that restrict consumer choice, reduce affordability and penalise businesses that have already acted responsibly.

That’s the exact risk being presented by the government’s plans to extend High in Fat Salt and Sugar (HFSS) advertising and promotions rules to more food and drinks, including those that have recently been reformulated.

Moving the goalposts undermines progress and value

At Suntory Beverage & Food GB&I (SBF GB&I), the makers of Lucozade and Ribena, we were an early mover on sugar reduction, investing in 2016 to remove more than 50 per cent of the sugar from our drinks, ensuring they were non-HFSS in the process, long before the current rules took effect.

Ten years on, the full set of HFSS rules have only just landed using the existing 2004/5 Nutrient Profiling Model (NPM).¹ There hasn’t been time to assess the impact the changes are having on the nation’s health or the economy, yet the government is considering expanding the rules by adopting a much more restrictive 2018 NPM.

The proposed model would effectively mean only drinks containing less than 0.9g of sugar per 100g would not face heavy restrictions on advertising and promotions, potentially reclassifying products that have already been substantially reformulated.

Businesses like ours have invested significantly to support people to live healthier lives. Moving to a new model not only moves the goalposts on that progress, requiring further reformulation, but it also restricts how products can be promoted, reducing value for consumers.

Price promotions help families manage the cost of the weekly shop, while also giving businesses a route to launch – and encourage consumers towards – new and reformulated products. Restricting those levers at a time when household budgets remain squeezed risks putting further pressure on consumers while weakening the incentive for industry to invest in further progress.

That is the opposite of the “breathing room” the Prime Minister has promised.

Investment needs stability

As part of the Japanese Suntory Group, we are able to bring together Japanese manufacturing expertise and investment to support and grow iconic British brands.

This year, our factory in Coleford, Gloucestershire celebrated its 80th birthday. In this milestone year, we are investing over £57m in our UK supply chain to improve our manufacturing capability – including a new high-speed production line and a custom-built blackcurrant processing site in nearby Herefordshire. This will boost productivity, efficiency and help keep costs down.

We want to continue investing in our manufacturing capability in the South West, but long-term investment depends on businesses having confidence that the regulatory environment will remain stable and consumers will continue to spend on their favourite brands. Policies that restrict the way businesses can offer value to consumers risks putting pressure on both, against a backdrop of continued pressure on household finances and fragile consumer confidence.

The Deposit Return Scheme can’t be collateral damage

These changes are particularly badly timed as the UK prepares to launch the Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) in October 2027.

The DRS is the government’s landmark packaging reform. It will drive recycling, reduce litter and support green growth. SBF GB&I has played its part in delivering the scheme, committing more than £6.5m towards internal readiness and setting up the UK Deposit Management Organisation, ‘Exchange for Change‘.

While shoppers will get back the 20p refundable deposit they pay up front on every in-scope drinks container when they return it, there will still be a visible difference at the shelf and till.

That 20p will be particularly noticeable on lower-priced drinks enjoyed on-the-go. For households already watching every penny, DRS may feel like an upfront price increase.

Price promotions would naturally play an important role during the DRS transition, helping to soften the initial price shock and support families to adjust to this sizeable change. But if promotions on already-reformulated drinks are restricted at the same time as DRS goes live, shoppers will be hit hard.

Equally, the Government risks making delivering this vital Deposit Return Scheme even harder.

This, too is the very opposite of breathing room.

The solution: Back reformulation and protect consumer value

Consumers do not experience health policy and environmental policy separately. They experience the combined impact at the checkout.

The current HFSS advertising and promotion restrictions are just taking full effect. Government should not adopt an NPM that will bring in substantially reformulated products in scope and restrict the value available to consumers.

At the very least, ministers should allow the existing HFSS rules to be properly assessed and DRS to bed in before further restrictions are considered.

The Prime Minister has promised families breathing room. Ministers can achieve that by providing regulatory stability and avoiding a policy collision at the checkout.

1. The NPM is a nutritional model that helps identify which foods and drinks are “less healthy” https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-nutrient-profiling-model