Letter: Regulation of harmful industries would help NHS

Martin Wolf asks how a Labour government will improve public services, particularly the NHS, without borrowing more money or raising taxes (“The difficult choices facing Starmer”, Opinion, July 8). How about regulating the harmful industries driving the preventable diseases which overwhelm it?

The biggest causes of preventable death in the UK are cigarettes, unhealthy and ultra-processed foods, alcohol and gambling.

Our research shows there are five drivers of this “addiction economy” — addictive product design, inescapable availability, predatory marketing, disinformation and undermining political action.

All these factors are successfully addressed by regulation as the rapid decline in cigarette use over the past 20 years has shown.

This may seem to clash with a commitment to be business friendly, but the government can take heart from recent studies that show the public overwhelmingly supports crackdowns on these products and that instead of being accused of being a nanny state, they are more likely to be considered a negligent state by failing to act.

Hilary Sutcliffe
SocietyInside,
London SE21, UK