Would a food tax unfairly impact on households with low incomes?

The National Food Strategy (NFS) has recommended the introduction of a ‘Sugar and Salt Reformulation Tax’ to change fiscal incentives in the food system to better support healthy diets. There are concerns that this tax could be regressive, disproportionately affecting the living costs of lower income households. In this briefing we explore the arguments around regressivity, providing an initial assessment based on the available evidence to judge whether concerns regarding the NFS recommended tax on salt and sugar can be substantiated.