Nine areas in England are set to become “healthy towns” under a plan by ministers to combat obesity.

Dudley, Halifax, Sheffield, Tower Hamlets in London, Thetford, Middlesbrough, Manchester, Tewkesbury and Portsmouth will share a total of £30 million in funding to help improve the health of their populations.

Local councils will all match the government funding to develop a host of schemes related to cycling, walking, health eating and green spaces.

It is part of a wider £375 million public health drive to encourage fitness in the run up to the London 2012 Olympic Games.

Alan Johnson, the Health Secretary, said: “Obesity is the biggest health challenge we face.

“For the first time we've given nine areas ‘healthy town’ status. This means they must promote healthy living. Each town has come up with innovative ways — such as a loyalty schemes or cycling projects — to help their residents to be more active.

“Healthy towns is just the start. Our aim is to create a healthy England.”

Among the measures put foward is a project called “Points4Life” in Manchester, which is a loyalty scheme to reward people with free activities or healthy food when they take exercise.

Theftford is planning a “cycle-recycle” project which supports people to buy and maintain bikes.

In Tower Hamlets, a new award scheme will rate fast food outlets, cafes and restaurants in terms of how healthy their menus are.

The healthy towns are part of the Government’s public health drive to encourage a “lifestyle revolution”. Mr Johnson has called for “a national movement” to help curb the nation’s waistlines, after figures showed that nearly a quarter of adults and a fifth of children are obese.

More than £200 million has already been pledged by food and drinks companies including Coca-Cola, Kellogg’s and Nestle, to support the campaign, known as “Change4Life”.

It will involve community groups, supermarkets, the media and charities in efforts to help people eat more healthily and be more active.

But research to inform the drive reveals that many people do not associate the risks of developing heart disease, cancer, depression and diabetes with their own families.

Other initiatives in the pipeline include cut-price promotions on fruit and vegetables and breakfast clubs in deprived areas.

Tam Fry, of the National Obesity Forum, said the schemes were “very sensible”.

But he added: “In many ways this is too little, too late. The Government should have acted years ago.

“However, you have to start somewhere and these are certainly the right kind of schemes.”

Andrew Lansley, Shadow Secretary of State for Health, said that the healthy towns initiative was typical of a “short-sighted approach to tackling public health issues”.

“The Government needs to demonstrate how it thinks it will achieve any better results or be any different from the health action zones which Labour spent heavily on in the nineties, achieved very little, and then disappeared without trace," he said.

“Our approach is to provide resources for the long-term, with the aim of achieving long-term results."

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