Council leaders have called for a proportion of VAT raised from sales of sugar-laden drinks to be channelled into schemes designed to prevent obesity.

The Local Government Association (LGA) said most soft drinks manufacturers are still doing too little to cut the amount of sugar in their products.

Research by the LGA found some drinks, such as a 330ml can of Old Jamaica Ginger Beer, contain more than double the World Health Organisation’s recommend daily sugar limit.

It urged firms to follow the lead of Britvic, which has committed to reducing the calorie content of its drinks by 20% within five years.

Yet industry body the British Soft Drinks Association said the UK soft drinks industry had ‘done more than any other sector to promote calorie reduction, through reformulation, smaller pack sizes and increased promotion of low and no calorie drinks’.

Cllr Izzi Seccombe, chair of the LGA’s Community Wellbeing Board, said: ‘Some firms are showing willing when it comes to reducing sugar - but others are simply dragging their heels. They need to go further, faster. We are calling on the sector as a whole to step up and show more corporate responsibility.’

She called on manufacturers to ‘provide clearer, larger and more prominent labelling which spells out the sugar content’.

Cllr Seccombe added: ‘Investing in obesity prevention is the key. Councils are already taking action locally to tackle obesity, but would be able to significantly ramp up these efforts, benefiting millions more, under the LGA’s plans for a fifth of existing VAT raised from sugary drinks, crisps, takeaways and sweets to go to council-run grassroots initiatives.

‘Local authorities are currently commissioning weight management services, exercise referral schemes and extending the offer of free or reduced-cost sport – for example swimming – and leisure facilities.

‘Additional funding would enable us to do so much more. This would help transform the lives of the millions of overweight or obese children in this country which would more than pay for itself by reducing the huge cost to the public purse of obesity.’