Childhood obesity should be tackled in a similar manner to the recently declared climate emergency according to a council committee chairman.

Cllr Ketan Sheth, chairman of Brent Council’s community and wellbeing scrutiny committee, called for a change of approach towards childhood obesity in the borough.

A report by a task group on the subject described it as a “health emergency”, noting that if current trends continue two-thirds of adults in Brent will be overweight or obese by 2034.

Cllr Sheth said: “The scale of the problem is overwhelming. In London, Great Britain and around the world, childhood obesity has been on the rise and it is now a significant public health challenge; perhaps equal to what previous generations faced from conditions such as TB.

“However, there is nothing inevitable about some children developing obesity, and we should not accept it as such.

“In a few places the upward trend over decades has been checked and even reversed, and what I’ve learnt from this task group is that with a stronger sense of urgency among the agencies and highly motivated parents and communities we too could achieve that.”

The task group recommended that children and young people should have greater access to “specialist services” that work holistically with parents.

It added that a series a healthy activities, such as walking to school or joining sports clubs, should be encouraged.

And it pointed out that all communities across Brent must come together to address the issues, “sharing assets and offering culturally peer-to-peer support for parents”.

This includes recognising that diabetes is particularly prevalent in black and south Asian communities and that, given Brent’s demographic make-up, this should be taken into account when formulating any new strategy.

It added that it is also important to support those from less privileged backgrounds since there is a “relationship between poverty and childhood obesity”.