Speaking in the House of Commons last night during the debate on the Government’s new Health and Social Care Bill, Dartford MP, Dr Howard Stoate, told MPs that Britain will need to develop ‘a culture of healthy living’ if we are to beat the growing obesity epidemic.
 
The MP, who is also the Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Obesity Group and a practising GP, said that practical measures aimed at making it easier for people to exercise regularly and eat healthily were important but that they weren’t necessarily enough in themselves to achieve a meaningful long-term  reduction in obesity levels.
 
“People often have the necessary motivation to live healthily and possess the necessary skills and opportunities to do so, but unless they live or work in an environment where there is an established culture of living healthily, there is a good chance that they will never be able to reach their goals,” said the MP.
 
“If a community is dominated by people in full-time employment who drive to work each day at 8 am and close their front door when they return home at 6 pm, as happens in many communities, simply providing better sporting facilities and more opportunities will not be enough to change people’s habits. The chances are that if our family, friends, neighbours and peers do not exercise, we will not either.”
 
The MP went on to say that what we need to do is to “embed healthy behaviour in the fabric of people’s everyday lives”. He used the example of the now infamous ‘school run’ to show how this might be done.
 
“Instead of its being socially desirable to be driven to school and socially undesirable or abnormal to walk, we have to try to turn that perception on its head. It is perfectly possible, for instance, to imagine children insisting that they be allowed to join the walking bus to school because that is where all their friends are and where all the social intercourse takes place. Children who are driven to school could feel that they are missing out on an essential part of their upbringing. If we can change the children’s perception in that way, we will see a genuine shift in behaviour. If that becomes a normal way to travel to school, parents will also be less concerned about the obvious potential dangers of walking.”
 
During the debate Dr Stoate also spoke about the crucial link between good town planning and healthy living.
 
“Huge amounts have been spent to create new public spaces in my constituency, but little thought has been given to how they will be used. It is pointless to create them if they do not deliver. Concerns about security, blind spots, lighting and the possible presence of antisocial users mean that normal people tend to avoid such spaces—except on special occasions when an organised event takes place.”
 
“The problem is that when we plan and construct our built environment and leisure spaces, we do not think enough about how—or indeed whether—they will be used by the people they have been created for. Or alternatively, we make assumptions about how they will be used without actually going to the trouble of asking potential users what they want. In many cases, that is because of time and cost issues. A developer will often choose an off-the-peg design because it is the easiest thing to do, and keep stakeholder consultation to a bare minimum, because that can also be difficult.”
 
“Because bad design is so rarely challenged—and almost never on public health grounds—highly questionable design principles that have never been properly tested become established design conventions that continue to be followed by planners, developers and designers, because that is the way that things have always been done. Consequently, the majority of new developments that are built in this country contain vast areas of unused, unloved, badly planned, dead public space. Only the roads are used regularly. The cumulative cost of those mistakes in social, economic and health terms is colossal. We can and must do something about that.”

You can view Dr Stoate's full statement by visiting: http://www.howardstoate.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=356&Itemid=61

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