One week to go – call for action on alcohol and tobacco in Budget 24

Fresh and Balance are calling for decisive action to reverse harm from alcohol and tobacco in this year’s autumn budget.

They join health leaders across the country calling on the Chancellor to use the budget as a way of improving the nation’s health while also plugging highly publicised gaps in the public purse.

Tobacco and alcohol are straining the public resources, costing the North East nearly £4 billion a year combined – with £2.35bn costs from smoking and £1.5 billion from alcohol. This includes costs to families and individuals, the NHS in healthcare and hospital admissions, social care for local authorities, costs to emergency services in crime and disorder (alcohol) and costs to the economy through sickness and lost employment prospects.

Not only does alcohol use place a significant burden on society but action to reduce smoking will be limited without action to reduce the harms caused by alcohol, including measures to reduce affordability.

Alcohol duty changes in August 2023 marked the first increase in over a decade. Treasury estimates indicate that cuts and freezes had cost the public purse around £1.8 billion in revenue every year since 2012, despite almost a million alcohol-related hospital admissions a year and record levels of alcohol deaths.

Fresh and Balance is a regional programme dedicated to reducing the harm from tobacco and alcohol in the North East of England.

The North East has a unique declaration for a smokefree future with a clear vision: “A smokefree future, free of the death and disease from tobacco, is needed, wanted and workable. This would improve the health and wealth of our region’s most disadvantaged communities more than any other measure”.

Balance has launched “Reducing Alcohol Harm”, a ground-breaking blueprint calling for urgent national action to tackle the significant impact of alcohol on health, social care, crime, disorder, workplaces, and the economy which has been backed by Directors of Public Health, Police and Crime Commissioners, the NHS Integrated Care Board for the North East and North Cumbria, and the Mayor of the North East Combined Authority

Ailsa Rutter OBE, Director of Fresh and Balance, said: 

“We are hopeful of moves now by the Government to raise the age of sale for tobacco. In the next few months MPs may have one of the biggest chances they will ever have to prevent our biggest cause of cancer, stop the start of young smokers and create a better life free of addiction for our children.

“However, a lack of action around alcohol over a decade is costing the country and costing our health, with hospital admissions and deaths at a record level. Meanwhile the alcohol and tobacco industry make huge profits without contributing to this cost.

“The Budget is an opportunity to boost the health of the nation for healthier and more productive communities so that poverty and inequalities are reduced, productivity is boosted, our workforce is healthier, more resilient and less likely to be out of work and reliant on the state, and demand on health and social care will be reduced.”

Fresh and Balance have responded to HM Treasury’s call for evidence ahead of the Autumn Budget 2024 with a series of key asks, supporting the recommendations from Action on Smoking and Health and the Alcohol Health Alliance. These are set out below:

Alcohol

1. Reintroduce the alcohol duty escalator with immediate effect to ensure taxation keeps pace with inflation. The cheaper alcohol is, the more is consumed, and the more harm caused. Ensuring duty keeps pace with inflation ensures that higher-strength products associated with more risk are taxed more.
2. Ensure alcohol duty is targeted at products sold in shops and supermarkets which have become increasingly more affordable in recent years, especially from shops and supermarkets. Shops benefit far more from duty cuts than pubs and alcohol sold in off-trade locations such as supermarkets is associated with more harm than that sold in pubs and restaurants.
3. End generous exceptions for cider and wine by increasing cider duty rates so they begin to equalise with that of beer of the same strength (ABV) and commit to ending the temporary wine easement in February 2025.
4. Commit to reviewing alcohol duty rates as part of a comprehensive national alcohol strategy to ensure health harming industries make a more meaningful contribution to reduce the cost of alcohol to society. It is estimated that alcohol is costing England £27 billion a year.

Smoking

1. Provide leadership on further measures to reduce smoking including the reintroduction of the Tobacco and Vapes Bill to create a “smokefree generation”. 72% of people in the North East support legislation to raise the age of sale for tobacco by one year every year.
2. Invest effectively in tobacco control at national, regional and local levels - including support for smokers to quit and awareness raising campaigns.
3. Introduce a “polluter pays” levy on the tobacco industry. Energy firms are required to pay windfall taxes on their excessive profits for the provision of essential public services therefore we believe that same legal obligations should apply to tobacco manufacturers given the destructive impact of their product. 79% of adults in the North East strongly support tobacco manufacturers being required to pay a levy to Government for measures to help smokers quit and prevent young people from taking up smoking.
4. Strengthen tax policy on cigarettes – the most effective way to reduce smoking rates and reduce health inequalities, while also easing the burden on public finances. 64% of North East adults would support a tobacco tax increase of 5% above inflation to raise the price of tobacco. Fresh is also calling for cigarillos to be redefined in the same way as cigarettes so they come under the same legislations such as standardised packaging, pack sizes and flavourings and they are in the same tax band.
5. Strengthen tobacco policy on hand rolling tobacco. More smokers are switching to HRT rather than quit - to counter this trend we recommend the Government increases the tax escalator for HRT to 15% above inflation until the tax rate for cigarettes and HRT is equal.
6. Prioritise the illegal tobacco market: action to tackle illicit tobacco is vital to ensure that a strong tax policy is not undermined by the availability of cheap illegal products, which is a concerning source of tobacco for children. We welcomed HMRC’s publication in January of a refreshed national illicit tobacco strategy and the commitment to work with partners including the Fresh-led national Illicit Tobacco Partnership. This is also important to support plans to raise the age of sale for tobacco.
7. Develop appropriate tax policy for vapes. We support the use of price-based measures to improve regulation of the vape market alongside promotion and availability measures, most notably to reduce the use of vapes among young people. However, any decisions around vape policy must take account of the effectiveness of vapes in supporting smokers to quit tobacco use.
8. Publish a list of tobacco retailers. The Government holds this under the new Track and Trace system which requires anyone buying tobacco for sale to customers to apply to HMRC for an Economic Operator ID (EOID) code. Publishing this list will help local authority public health and enforcement teams to communicate effectively with retailers who sell tobacco and ensure that legislation around age of sale and illegal products is followed by all retailers locally.