Gambling ads will be banned from council-owned property along with those for junk food and vaping.

UK.- Kingston Council intends to ban gambling adverts along with advertisements for unhealthy food and vaping across sites it owns in the South London borough. The council said it would follow a move by several other boroughs to introduce a healthier advertising policy.

As well as ads for gambling products and services, the new policy will ban adverts for alcohol, tobacco and vapes and food and non-alcoholic drinks that are high in fat, sugar and salt on council-owned sites and services. It would be up to the council to decide whether an advert complies with the policy.

Council officers said the policy aims to improve the health of borough residents by reducing exposure to unhealthy products after a joint strategic needs assessment in 2023 found tobacco, alcohol, high body mass index, poor diet and high systolic blood pressure to be the five biggest risk factors for ill health and premature mortality for adults.

The council’s People Committee will vote on whether to approve the policy on June 17.

Some 24 local authorities across the UK have passed healthier advertising policies, according to Kingston’s report, including nine London boroughs.

The report said: “The healthier advertising policy will restrict advertising of harmful products on all council-owned estates, assets and through procured advertising service contracts. This will apply to new contracts, with existing contracts adopting this policy when they are renewed.”

In March, the Health and Social Care Committee urged central government to revisit regulations for gambling advertising in Britain.

The previous Conservative government’s 2023 Gambling White Paper made no major changes on gambling ads, holding off from proposing any intervention on sports sponsorship. But, in a letter to under-secretary of state for public health and prevention Ashley Dalton signed by committee chair Layla Moran, legislators called for a review of advertising, promotion and sponsorship, including possible restrictions on gambling ads before the watershed.

The House of Lords rejected a call to tag restrictions on gambling sponsorship in sports on to the Football Governance Bill.