A cross-party Commons health committee has called on the government to ban fast food chains from opening near schools and to outlaw junk food advertising on billboards and public transport, as part of a series of recommendations to address obesity, which costs the UK £74 billion a year.

28% of 13 to 15 year olds in England are now either overweight or obese, with MPs warning that hundreds of initiatives introduced since 1992 have failed to reverse rising obesity levels

Ministers should give local councils greater powers to stop fast food takeaways opening near schools, closing loopholes that have allowed chains including KFC to successfully challenge council restrictions in more than half of 43 legal cases brought against local authorities

All outdoor advertising of foods high in fat, sugar or salt, including on billboards and public transport, should be banned, alongside mandatory front-of-pack traffic light labelling across all food products

The committee criticised the government for not following through on pledges to tackle bad diets, urging ministers to “be more courageous” in standing up to food industry lobbying