With a surprising change in attitude, Chancellor George Osborne has announced a Sugar Levy on the British soft drinks industry. Citing the fact the 1 in 5 English children are obese by the time they leave primary school; the government has introduced the sugar levy to tackle the rising childhood obesity rates.

Broken into two bands the sugar tax is relatively simple to understand:

1. The first taxable band will be applied to soft drinks with a total sugar content exceeding 5 grams per 100 millilitres.
2. The second and higher taxable band targets the most sugary drinks, those with more than 8 grams of sugar per 100 millilitres.

The second band will affect soft drink industry giants, including Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Mountain Dew, 7-UP and others.

Pure fruit juices and milk drinks have been excluded from the tax. As the levy is assessed on the volume of soft drink produced, the smallest soft drink producers who will be kept out of scope.

Mr Osbourne advised that the tax would be implemented in two years to allow businesses time to reduce their sugar content and create marketing around these changes.

There is however, no stipulation that the soft drinks be made healthier or sweetened naturally.

Image credit: BBC News