Sarah Marsh

Sarah Marsh covers how markets, regulation and corporate decisions hit people in their daily lives, with a focus on consumer costs, safety and strain on public systems. As consumer affairs correspondent at the Guardian, she sits on the business beat but writes from the point of view of households navigating changing prices, products and services. Her recent work ranges from shrinkflation and food reformulation to ADHD care, recycling pressures and the impact of private equity on essential services.

Household budgets and consumer pressure

Marsh returns often to the ways consumer prices and product changes add pressure to family finances. She has reported on “shrinkflation” hitting everyday staples and how smaller pack sizes and subtle product tweaks pile more strain on households. In a piece on UK snack reformulation, she examines why brands are changing recipes and sizes and what that means for taste, health and value for money.

Her coverage of “proteinmaxxing” looks at how demand for high-protein products risks pushing up prices for infant formula, drawing out the conflict between lifestyle trends and basic needs.

She follows how people fund discretionary spending, not just how much it costs. In a call for case studies on buy now, pay later holidays, she signalled reporting on the rise of consumers using credit-style products to pay for travel, and the risks that creates for debt and affordability. She tracks the volume of goods bought and discarded as closely as the price paid for them. In articles on half a billion cheap electrical items going to UK landfills and Britain’s 6m-vape problem straining recycling, she connects everyday purchasing decisions to systemic waste and environmental costs. Across these stories, she links individual choices to broader economic trends in clear, concrete terms.

Regulation, corporate power and public services

Marsh’s business coverage often turns on oversight, accountability and the role of private companies in public services. She has reported on alarm over NHS patient records being put under the control of a US private equity firm, spelling out the concerns around data security, profit motives and the integrity of care.

In another investigation, she covers private equity groups collecting millions to run government-funded sexual assault referral centres, highlighting the tension between commercial arrangements and support for victims.

Her work on ADHD and autism services in England focuses on how budgets, commissioning and regulation are falling short. She has detailed how complaints about autism and ADHD care have more than tripled over five years, and how services are projected to exceed their budgets by hundreds of millions of pounds. In conversation about that investigation, she discusses the origins of the reporting and its findings on the struggles faced by health systems in managing diagnoses and care pathways. She also follows regulatory responses in consumer markets, such as plans to restrict vape packaging and flavouring to reduce their appeal to children, balancing health concerns against industry responses.

Health, neurodiversity and everyday care

Health and neurodiversity are a recurring lens in Marsh’s consumer reporting.

She has written an expert guide to living well with neurodiversity, emphasising practical strategies and support networks for people with conditions such as ADHD and autism. In a personal piece on ADHD and childbirth, she sets out how she navigated pregnancy and early parenting while managing her condition, framing the story around seven specific lessons learned. These articles blend reported expertise with lived experience, bringing clinical, policy and personal perspectives into the same frame.

Her coverage also touches on fitness and drug use, including a feature where a bodybuilder recalls how drug abuse caught up with him.

That story sits alongside her broader interest in how health, lifestyle and commercial products intersect, from dog food recalls after reports of pets losing their sight to worries about how changing products affect well-being. Together, these pieces build a picture of a reporter who treats health and neurodiversity as central consumer issues rather than specialist medical topics.

Food, lifestyle and emerging trends

Marsh frequently uses food and lifestyle trends to show how business decisions filter into culture and daily routines. Her article on TikTok turning Japanese milk bread into a UK food craze charts how social media drives demand for specific products, and how retailers and bakeries respond. In a feature on remaking biscuits, she explores why brands from Doritos to digestives are being reformulated, tying taste and texture changes to health targets, regulation and costs. These stories treat snacks and baking as evidence of wider shifts in manufacturing, marketing and consumer expectations.

She also looks ahead at labour and career trends shaped by technology. In a piece on jobs that are “safe from AI”, she assesses which roles are likely to remain resilient and what that means for workers planning their futures. Across lifestyle, food and work, her reporting underscores how macro forces such as regulation, technology and corporate strategy manifest in small, everyday choices.

Before specialising in consumer affairs, she spent many years as a news reporter, which shows in her mix of data, policy detail and human stories across the business beat.