Policies for transforming the UK’s food system: insights from Brighton and Hove’s local community

With a growing part of UK population experiencing food inequalities, transforming the UK food system constitutes a key imperative demanding urgent policy action. However, how can we make sure that policies speak to local community lives and needs? As part of the UKRI-funded FoodSEqual project, the University of Sussex and the Brighton and Hove Food Partnership have joined forces in organizing community policy workshops in two high deprivation areas of Brighton and Hove, asking local people’s views on their ideal food futures and changes that need to happen to get there. Drawing on local community input from our workshops held in October 2023, this policy briefing outlines key policy recommendations for transforming the UK food system. It points to policy areas and changes – both at national and local levels – that people identified as important for a meaningful food system change. By doing so, it also underlines the significance of attending to local people’s voices in order to achieve more impactful as well as more inclusive policy making, and the need for developing appropriate methods for supporting that.