The NHS will offer shopping vouchers and discounts to people who walk for at least 20 minutes a day, under a reward-based scheme designed to tackle the UK’s entrenched inactivity crisis. The initiative, named Movement 26.2, is backed by NHS England and will launch in January 2027, with an initial target of signing up around 100,000 participants. Health officials are already in talks with high street and online retailers to finalise the reward structure, which is expected to function like a supermarket or coffee-shop loyalty programme.
How the voucher scheme will work
The campaign is led by Olympic medallist Sir Brendan Foster and Air Miles inventor Sir Keith Mills. Participants will be asked to walk 20 to 30 minutes each day, accumulating the equivalent of a full marathon — 26.2 miles — over the course of a month. Walks can be logged online, through a dedicated app, or via a phone or smartwatch, and provisions are expected to be made for people with disabilities. Sir Brendan said: “The challenge became very simple: can you do a marathon? Not in one day, but over the course of a month.” He added: “It’s the marathon reimagined. You don’t have to travel anywhere, you don’t need special kit and there’s no entry fee. It starts from your own front door.”
The rewards system will operate on a “streak culture” model, a gamified approach popularised by apps such as Duolingo, to encourage consistent daily activity. Participants will earn digital badges, medals, clothing, discounts and shopping vouchers based on their activity levels. NHS England will fund the initial rollout and set-up of the scheme, but the rewards themselves will not be paid for by the health service. Instead, organisers plan to secure corporate sponsorships and philanthropic backing from major businesses and public and private sector partners. Sir Keith Mills, whose expertise in loyalty programmes is central to the design, aims to replicate the success of existing retail loyalty schemes.
Sir Jim Mackey, NHS chief executive, said: “Physical activity should be part of everyone’s daily life choice. Movement 26.2 is about exactly that — making movement part of everyday life again in a way that feels simple and achievable for everyone.” He added: “By helping people build regular walking into their daily routines, we have a real opportunity to improve physical and mental wellbeing and help people live longer, healthier lives.” The scheme aligns with the government’s NHS 10-Year Health Plan, which prioritises prevention and encouraging people to “move more”. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer also endorsed the initiative, saying: “What I love about Movement 26.2 is its simplicity. Walking 20 minutes a day, which adds up to a marathon over a month, is exactly that – a simple, achievable challenge that has meaningful benefits.”
The inactivity problem the scheme is designed to fix
Around a third of Britons fail to meet the NHS’s recommended 150 minutes of moderate-intensity activity a week, such as walking or cycling. Physical inactivity is estimated to cost the NHS roughly £1 billion annually, and the broader economic burden — including lost productivity, social care needs and reduced wellbeing — reaches £20 billion a year. Sedentary behaviour alone cost the UK NHS £0.7 billion in 2016–2017, contributing to cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes. Overall, physical inactivity is associated with one in six deaths in the UK.
A sedentary lifestyle — sitting, reclining or lying down while awake for hours each day — has long been linked to poorer health outcomes, including obesity, type 2 diabetes, some cancers and heart disease. About a quarter of adults in the UK are living with obesity, which is thought to cost the UK £74 billion annually, of which £11 billion is attributed to NHS expenditure. Sir Brendan Foster said the scheme draws inspiration from research by Harvard University Professor Daniel E. Lieberman, which suggests modern environments work against our evolved need for movement. Walking 30 minutes five times a week could add up to four extra years of healthy life, according to the evidence cited by the campaign.
A precedent for the reward-based approach exists: a pilot scheme in Wolverhampton using a similar “Better Health: Rewards” app, also involving Sir Keith Mills, received £3 million from the government and aimed to reduce obesity’s impact on the NHS. However, some commentators have questioned whether Movement 26.2 may primarily reward those already active, potentially having limited impact on the most inactive individuals who contribute most to the costs of inactivity. Others have raised concerns that the administrative complexity of apps, verification and partnerships could overshadow the simple act of walking itself, and that relying on vouchers represents a “nudge” rather than addressing the root causes of a sedentary society.
