Government to extend soft drinks levy to sugary milk-based drinks in bid to improve children’s health

The government has announced that the soft drinks industry levy will be expanded to cover a wider range of high-sugar beverages, including milk-based and milk-alternative drinks.

Ministers say the move will help families make healthier choices and could significantly reduce rates of obesity, tooth decay and related illnesses.

Under the plans, products such as supermarket milkshakes, sweetened yoghurt drinks, chocolate milks and ready-to-drink coffees will fall within the scope of the levy for the first time. Although many of these drinks contain as much added sugar as fizzy soft drinks, they were previously exempt. Plain, unsweetened milk and milk-alternative drinks will remain excluded.

The government estimates that the changes could remove around 17 million calories a day from the national diet, helping to prevent cancer, heart disease and stroke, while also easing pressure on the NHS. Companies have until January 2028 to reduce sugar content or face the levy, a shift expected to deliver nearly £1 billion in combined health and economic benefits.

Since the levy was introduced, the average sugar content of drinks within its scope has fallen by almost one half. Officials hope the new measures will prompt manufacturers to reformulate their milk-based products in the same way that soft drink producers did after 2018.

Health and Social Care Secretary Wes Streeting said the extension would help “raise the healthiest generation of children ever,” adding: “An unhealthy start to life holds kids back from day one, especially those from poor backgrounds like mine. The levy has already shown that when industry cuts sugar levels, children’s health improves. So, we’re going further.”

The threshold for the levy will be reduced from five grams to four and a half grams of sugar per 100 millilitres, bringing more high-sugar drinks into the system unless manufacturers act. HMRC confirmed the policy following a consultation held between April and July 2025.

Obesity remains a major public health challenge, with the UK reporting the third-highest adult obesity rate in Europe. The condition contributes to diabetes, heart disease and certain cancers and costs the NHS £11.4 billion a year, three times its ambulance service budget.

Between 2015 and 2024, sugar levels in drinks already covered by the levy fell by almost one half. This has coincided with significant reductions in hospital admissions for caries-related tooth extractions, down over twenty-eight per cent among children aged nought to four, and more than five per cent among those aged five to nine.

Despite reformulation, sales of affected products increased by 13.5 per cent between 2015 and 2024, according to Department of Health and Social Care data, indicating strong consumer support for lower-sugar options.

The newly extended levy is expected to cut daily calorie intake by around four million in children and thirteen million in adults across England. Officials say this could prevent nearly fourteen thousand cases of adult obesity and almost one thousand cases in children.

The government believes the move will:

• deliver almost £1 billion in health and economic benefits, including £36 million in NHS savings

• reduce social care pressures by £30 million

• contribute around £221 million in economic output through improved workforce participation

Professor Sir Chris Whitty, England’s Chief Medical Officer, said extending the levy would further reduce children’s long-term health risks, noting its previous success in lowering sugar consumption and reducing tooth extractions.

The levy extension forms part of a broader package of measures to improve national health, which includes a healthy food standard for shopping baskets, bans on junk food adverts before the 9pm watershed, a ban on selling high-caffeine energy drinks to under-sixteens and new powers for councils to restrict fast food outlets near schools.

Campaigners say the policy will help ensure that healthier choices become easier and more affordable for families, while encouraging manufacturers still using high levels of added sugar to reformulate.