Government invests nearly £10 million to boost local food initiatives and address food insecurity in England

The UK government is allocating nearly £10 million to support local schemes aimed at improving access to healthy and affordable food in deprived communities, highlighting a focus on tackling food insecurity and obesity through community-driven initiatives.

The government is set to channel almost £10 million into a new drive to improve access to healthy and affordable food in England’s most deprived communities, in a move ministers say will help make “good food within reach” for families under the greatest pressure. According to the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs, 45 local authorities will each receive about £222,000 to design local schemes aimed at tackling food insecurity and obesity.

The Good Food Neighbourhoods programme is expected to fund projects such as community food shops, mobile greengrocers, lunch clubs, community kitchens and cooking and nutrition classes. The government said the money is intended not only to support immediate access to food, but also to strengthen councils’ ability to understand local needs and plan longer-term responses. Officials said the scheme was shaped after work by the Citizen’s Advisory Council and discussions with civil society organisations.

The decision comes as ministers point to fresh evidence that food insecurity remains a serious problem. Government figures show that around 9% of people lived in food-insecure households in 2024/25, with children in deprived areas facing a higher risk of obesity and related health inequalities. The programme is part of a wider government effort to ease cost-of-living pressures for families, while also encouraging local partnerships with businesses, charities and philanthropic groups to extend the reach of existing community projects.

Campaigners welcomed the announcement but urged ministers to treat it as a starting point rather than a one-off grant. Sustain, the food and farming alliance, said the funding could help build stronger local food infrastructure, but argued that lasting progress would require a national framework to make healthy food access more equitable. Its call highlights a familiar tension in anti-hunger policy: short-term local support can help families quickly, but structural changes are needed if communities are to be less reliant on emergency interventions.