Britain’s couch potato lifestyle contributes to as many deaths as smoking and threatens to bankrupt public services, health chiefs warned yesterday.
One in six deaths can be traced back to inactivity and the country is moving 20 per cent less than in the 1960s, Public Health England (PHE) said, in a report which insisted that “everybody needs to become more active, every day”.
The warning came as the head of the NHS said the cost of obesity must be brought under control to make the health service sustainable. Simon Stevens, chief executive of NHS England, wants bosses to offer prizes to staff who lose weight, with public money used to fund some schemes.
PHE said “social norms” must change to make activity more ordinary, insisting