Big tobacco must follow energy and banks to pay its share of profits
HEALTH campaigners in the North East have joined MPs to call on the Chancellor to make Big Tobacco pay towards any shortfalls in public spending from profits made from driving addiction and disease.
In advance of the Autumn statement next week, Fresh and cancer survivor Sue Mountain are supporting calls by the influential All Party Parliamentary Group on Smoking and Health to make tobacco companies pay towards supporting smokers to quit and for action to further reduce smoking rates.
Economists estimate an immediate windfall tax on tobacco transnationals like the taxes on banks and energy could raise £74 million a year. And an additional ‘polluter pays’ levy on tobacco companies could also raise £700 million a year. Around three quarters of adults (76%) and tobacco retailers (73%) in England support a levy on manufacturers to pay for tobacco control measures.
Ex-smoker Sue Mountain, from South Tyneside, underwent laser treatment in 2012 after a biopsy revealed she had laryngeal cancer. The cancer returned in 2017 which required radiotherapy every day for four weeks.
Sue said: “Like most people who smoke now or smoked, I started as a kid, before I realised how addictive it was. I don’t want my grandchildren to go through what I went through. I could have bought half a house on the money I spent on smoking. Instead I spent it on an addiction that gave me cancer.
“But I’m one of the lucky ones. Smoking makes life a misery for many thousands of people who suffer from debilitating diseases before it kills them. It’s shocking that tobacco companies are making massive profits from an addiction that robs people of their lives and their health. Everyone is having to make savings right now. I believe they need to pay for the damage they do and fund work to reduce smoking.”
Ailsa Rutter OBE Director of Fresh and Balance said: “Unlike any other product, tobacco is addictive and kills 2 out of 3 lifelong users. That is why tobacco companies must pay towards prevention. Cash strapped local authorities are having to fund support to help smokers quit while big tobacco rolls in its profits.
“Reducing smoking is not just vital for our health but good for smokers’ pockets, our economy and the financial wellbeing of the North East.
“Tobacco has killed over 113,000 people since the year 2000 and four out of ten households in our region where people smoke are living in poverty. Most people have lost someone to smoking – it is right that the companies which cause this harm are made to pay for prevention.”
Reducing smoking would also help ease pressures on family budgets with the average smoker spending around £2,000 a year to fund an addiction which for most starts in childhood. It would also reduce the £17bn a year smoking costs the UK economy, the NHS and local authority social care.
MPs on the cross party APPG on Smoking and Health have backed the calls.
Alex Cunningham Labour MP for Stockton on Tees and vice chairman of the All Party Group on Smoking and Health said: “ Tobacco excise taxes raise around £10 billion a year but this money doesn’t come from the tobacco industry, but from the pockets of smokers, who spend on average £2,000 a year on smoking.
“The funding to help smokers quit is measured in millions not billions, and has been cut by a third since 2015. As Javed Khan pointed out funding is needed to deliver the Government’s smokefree 2030 ambition, which will increase economic growth, and healthy life expectancy; while reducing pressure on the health and social care system, and helping level up society. We call on the Chancellor to announce in the Autumn statement that he’s going to make Big Tobacco pay to help smokers quit, through a windfall tax backed up by a ‘polluter pays’ levy.”
Bob Blackman, Conservative MP for Harrow East and Chairman of the All Party Group on Smoking and Health said: “Banks and energy companies have been made subject to windfall taxes, so why not the tobacco manufacturers, who make eye wateringly high profits from products which kill two out of three lifelong customers.
“Four manufacturers, BAT, Imperial, JTI and PMI are responsible for over 95% of UK tobacco sales and the same proportion of deaths. A windfall tax could be implemented immediately to raise £74 million a year, but tobacco companies are very good at minimising their tax liabilities. That’s why we’re calling on the Chancellor to back this up with a ‘polluter pays’ levy which by limiting Big Tobacco’s profits to the 10% average for business could raise hundreds of millions a year.”
Public support for Government action on tobacco: Results of the 2022 ASH Smokefree Survey
In the UK, in 2019, 14.1% of people aged 18 years and above smoke cigarettes, which equates to around 6.9 million people, based on estimates from the Annual Population Survey (APS).
The recent Khan Review “Making Smoking Obsolete” report sets out a case for comprehensive investment of an additional £125 million per year in tobacco control measures to deliver the government’s smokefree 2030 ambition.
It recommended that if the government cannot fund this themselves, they should ‘make the polluter pay’ and either introduce a tobacco industry levy, or generate additional corporation tax.
UK Government Chief Medical Officer Sir Chris Whitty in 2021 commented that one in five cancer deaths are from lung cancer which is “almost entirely’ caused for a small number of cigarette companies to make profit.”
Speaking recently at a symposium on medical ethics held by the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Medicine, Sir Chris said: “Smoking is the biggest driver that we could easily deal with in the sense of the inequalities we see across the UK. It is an appalling way to die, it kills people in multiple ways.
Sir Chris said that there was a “legitimate point” about adults being allowed to make their own choices, but warned governments often faced lobbying from vested interests. He said it is important for the state to intervene in industries based on addiction.
How smoking costs the North East:
- Smoking in the North East costs the region over £887 million a year in healthcare, social care costs and lost earnings according analysis of national data for charity Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) which revealed the annual bill for England as a whole was £17 billion.
- • The breakdown of costs in the North East is based on 15.26% of adults – around 326,000 people – smoking in the region who spend around £634 million on addictive tobacco products.
- It costs the NHS £124.9 million in smoking-related healthcare, made up of around 33,355 hospital admissions, 1.2m GP consultations, nearly 695,000 GP prescriptions, 413,000 practice nurse consultations and over 224,700 outpatient visits.
- The social care cost is £66.9 million with smokers needing social care at a younger age than non-smokers for everyday tasks such as dressing, walking and using the toilet due to smoking. This includes the cost of care to local authorities, care provided in the home and residential care costs.
- Meanwhile, £684 million a year is lost in earnings and employment prospects. With smoking causing life-limiting conditions, smokers are not only more likely to die in working age, but more likely to become ill, increasing the likelihood of being out of work and reducing their average wage.