Campaigners call for tax rise on booze and tobacco
Health campaigners in the North East are calling for higher taxes on cigarettes and alcohol to drive down the region’s £200m ‘preventable’ illness bill.
Fresh and Balance – regional tobacco and alcohol programmes funded by local authorities in the North East, have written to Chancellor Jeremy Hunt calling on him to introduce the measures which will prevent illnesses and deaths, increase productivity, and encourage more money to be spent in the local economy.
They argue that smokingrelated healthcare costs the NHS in the region £124.9m a year and local councils are spending around £70m every year delivering care to 86,000 people due to smoking.
In addition estimates suggest up to 17 million working days are lost each year in the UK because of alcohol-related sickness – at a cost of around £7.3bn to the economy each year.
Raising taxes on unhealthy products like tobacco and alcohol is one of the most effective and cost-effective measure to reduce consumption and improve people's health – with Fresh and Balance claiming the “majority” of people support the policy.
Ailsa Rutter, director of Fresh and Balance, said: “Smoking is killing people and robbing others of years of active, working life. It is devastating our economy at the same time,
"This is entirely preventable and the Government has a real chance in March at the Spring Budget to change some of this.
"We want to see effective tax increases that raise the price of tobacco and manufacturers made to pay a proportion of their vast profits towards the cost of dealing with the devastation caused by smoking.”
Sue Taylor, the organisation’s head of alcohol policy, said: “Deaths from alcohol are at an all-time high and liver disease is soaring
“For too many years, the Government has chosen to freeze or cut alcohol duty, which has depleted the public purse and resulted in less investment in vital frontline services.
"The Government has now committed to reforming the duty system, but we need to see bold action that saves lives, reduces harm and eases pressure on the NHS.
"We also need an evidence-based national alcohol strategy to reverse the harms that have spiralled in recent years.”