What is the Priority Places for Food Index?
The Priority Places for Food Index identifies neighbourhoods across the UK that are vulnerable to increases in the cost of living and are most likely to need support to access affordable, healthy, and sustainable sources of food.
Developed in 2022, as a collaboration between the Consumer Data Research Centre and consumer group Which?, the interactive tool makes it easy for policy makers to identify neighbourhoods most in need of support and understand the factors driving the need in that area.
The index is constructed using open data across seven domains:
- Proximity to supermarket retail facilities
- Accessibility to supermarket retail facilities
- Proximity to non-supermarket food provision
- Access to online deliveries
- Fuel poverty
- Socio-demographic barriers
- Need for family food support
How to use the Priority Places for Food Index
- Explore our interactive tool to identify neighbourhoods in your area most in need of support to access healthy and affordable food, hover over a point to understand which domains are driving the need in that area.
- Download the Priority Places for Food Index data for your own analysis – now available at LSOA and Constituency level.
- A number of local authorities incorporate the Priority Places for Food Index into their Joint Strategic Needs Assessment (Wakefield, West Sussex, Brighton & Hove, Oxford)
How to access the Priority Places for Food Index
Explore the interactive tool
Download the data at LSOA level
Download the data at Constituency level
User examples
“At Good Food Oxfordshire we’ve worked very closely with the county and district councils to develop and implement a food strategy for Oxfordshire.
The PPFI is a core metric for some of our top priority areas, such as reducing food poverty. We like the PPFI because it’s relevant to us, it’s multi-dimensional – so we can use it holistically or with different dimensions of food insecurity, it’s easy to explain, and it can be tested and developed against our practical realities locally.”
Stuart Newstead, Non-executive director, Good Food Oxfordshire
“The Priority Places for Food Index is a really useful measure to help local authorities understand the needs around access to food, food environments, and food insecurity in their areas. We’ve already used it multiple times to support our work to deliver the Birmingham Food System Strategic Action Plan.”
Sarah Newton, Service Lead, Food System Team, Public Health Division, Birmingham City Council
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