The Nutritional Challenge: Improving Access to Healthy Food

On Tuesday 15 October the Industry and Parliament Trust (IPT) hosted a breakfast meeting for parliamentarians and industry representatives on ‘The Nutritional Challenge: Improving Access to Healthy Food’. This discussion was chaired by Baroness Browning, Member of the Lords Select Committee on Food, Diet and Obesity, with guest speakers Jonathan Taylor, Managing Director at Innocent Drinks and Dr Megan Blake, Senior Lecturer in Human Geography at the University of Sheffield. The event discussed how we can encourage households to prioritise fresh produce over convenience foods and promote nutritional health.

Key discussion points:

• The ongoing cost-of-living crisis has resulted in the issue of food insecurity becoming increasingly intertwined with nutritional insecurity; industry, charities and policymakers must work collaboratively to implement nutritional standards across the UK.
• Understanding the underlying causes of nutritional gaps is essential in order to create realistic solutions:
  • Healthy food is heavily associated with negative perceptions such as being more expensive to buy, more time-consuming to prepare, and having reduced shelf-life when compared to its unhealthier counterparts.
• Financial incentives for brands and businesses may improve the affordability of healthy food products and make them more accessible for larger consumer bases.
• Branding, packaging, and marketing are useful devices in informing consumers the value of nutritious diets, whilst also engaging with children and promoting healthy eating habits.

Driving Costs Down: Navigating the Rise in UK Motor Premiums      

On Tuesday 15 October 2024 the Industry and Parliament Trust (IPT) hosted a dinner event for parliamentarians and industry representatives on ‘Driving Costs Down: Navigating the Rise in UK Motor Premiums’. This discussion was chaired by Sally Jameson MP, Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Ministry of Justice, with guest speakers Adam Winslow, Chief Executive Officer, Direct Line Group and James Dalton, Chief Services Officer, Motor Insurers' Bureau.

Key discussion points:

• Despite recent rises to the cost of motor premiums, insurance companies have been paying more in claims than they are receiving in premiums due to structural issues such as inflation, global supply chains and increased costs of energy, labour, repairs and courtesy cars. Organised crime relating to fraud and vehicle theft is also pushing prices up for consumers.
• Whilst new technologies in cars can help reduce accidents, electric vehicles and newer cars are also more complicated and expensive to repair.
• Safer and better-quality roads would help reduce claims and therefore insurance costs.
• New telematics technologies could be used to assess risk and reduce costs for safer drivers.