BHF comment
Autumn Budget 2025: What it means for heart health
Yesterday, Chancellor Rachel Reeves delivered the Autumn Budget against a backdrop of economic uncertainty and growing pressure on public services. Several key health-related measures were announced. Our analysis for what these mean for cardiovascular health and the wider NHS are as follows.
Expansion of the Soft Drinks Industry Levy
The Government has confirmed that the Soft Drinks Industry Levy (SDIL) will now include pre-packaged milkshakes, flavoured milks, sweetened yoghurt drinks and ready-to-drink coffees.
The threshold for sugar content in soft drinks will also be lowered from 5g to 4.5g per 100ml. Drinks made fresh in cafés will remain exempt. Ministers argue this will encourage reformulation and help curb obesity, a major risk factor for heart disease.
This move aims to address rising obesity rates and reduce sugar consumption, particularly among children. The SDIL has been successful by using financial incentives to drive the drinks industry to reduce the amount of sugar in their products.
The introduction of this Levy has resulted in a 47% reduction in sugar levels in soft drinks from 2015 to 2024. The result? There has been an overall reduced sugar intake from soft drinks across the population. Recent research suggests that in England, the Levy may actually have prevented over 5,000 cases of obesity per year amongst Year 6 girls alone, as well as across all socioeconomic groups.
Why this matters
Obesity and poor diet are major contributors to cardiovascular disease, which remains one of the UK’s biggest killers. Policies that reduce sugar intake can help lower obesity rates and improve heart health over time. However, these measures must be backed by sustained investment in wider public health and prevention to have a meaningful impact.
Dr Charmaine Griffiths, our Chief Executive said: “The more sugar cut from drinks on supermarket shelves, the better, so extending the levy to include sugary milk-based drinks is the right thing to do. The current levy has been extremely effective at incentivising manufacturers to reduce sugar levels in soft drinks, and evidence has shown free sugar consumption in children and adults has decreased.
“Diets high in sugar are linked to weight gain and obesity, which increase the risk cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure and type 2 diabetes. We hope this move motivates manufacturers to cut the amount of sugar in milk-based drinks and going forward, we need to keep up the pace of progress so families have far more healthy choices available to them."
New Neighbourhood Health Centres
The Government have announced that they will establish an additional 250 neighbourhood health centres across England.
We are hopeful the new neighbourhood health centres will increase people’s access to healthcare services by bringing care closer to people’s homes and hope to see a strong implementation plan soon.
Clear understanding of how these will work in practice will be key for heart patients to know how helpful this new initiative is.
Boost for international researchers
The Chancellor also announced that there will be additional funding for international researchers, with £8.5million extra invested in career development and scientist fellowships.
This aims to support international researchers who want to build careers here in the UK. We welcome the continued efforts to support international talent in the UK.
It was also shared that from August 2028, there will be a levy on international student fees. Higher education providers will pay a new levy of £925 per international student for each year of study. This is expected to raise around £600 million to fund the higher education and skills system.
It is hard to know at the moment what impact this will have on us and our researchers
The BHF invests around £100 million in research into cardiovascular disease each year, and attracting students from around the world is important to sustain the research talent we will need long into the future.