ASH Calls To End Tobacco
Action on Smoking and Health is promoting a Landman Economics survey claiming that ending the sale of tobacco products will increase the volume of jobs in Great Britain
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by Dave Cross
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A new study, conducted by Landman Economics on behalf of Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) and part-funded by the SPECTRUM research consortium, finds an additional bonus to the British economy of creating a smokefree country – supporting the Government’s growth mission.
Released on the eve of MPs voting to phase out the sale of tobacco to the next generation, the study claims to find that getting people to buy goods and services other than tobacco would create tens of thousands of new UK jobs.
“If the Government’s ambition of a smokefree country were to be achieved, then there would be 135,000 more FTE jobs in the UK economy worth almost £10 billion. The most recent estimate from the tobacco industry in 2017 estimated that 5,000 UK jobs were dependent on tobacco,” the charity says.
The reason for the dramatic increase, ASH continues, is that most products and services purchased create jobs in the economy through production, manufacturing or providing services.
“However, there is almost no tobacco production in the UK and very few other jobs which are reliant on the tobacco industry. Therefore, when people buy something other than tobacco, it stimulates more growth in the economy than if they continued to purchase tobacco.”
Economist Howard Reed, who led the analysis, commented: “Few would consider reducing smoking as having a direct impact on the country’s growth strategy, but plainly this analysis shows that reducing consumption of tobacco can have major benefits to society beyond improving health. What is more, switching spending away from tobacco can have a very rapid impact on job creation, whereas some of the health benefits can take many years to be seen.”
Economist Dr Rob Branston, Associate Professor at the University of Bath, added: “Tobacco is a bad deal for the British economy in so many ways, from the drain on public finances through the excess illness it causes, to the damage it has on productivity by making people too sick to work. But it is also bad for British jobs, with spending on nearly anything else better for the health of our economy. Reducing smoking, as the government plans to do, is a double win – good for health and good for growth.”
Hazel Cheeseman, ASH’s Chief Executive, continued: “MPs will take a historic step when they vote in support of the Tobacco and Vapes Bill, and they should do so in the knowledge of the many benefits it will gift future generations. The phased-out sale of tobacco will unlock potential for the next generation not only by keeping them healthy but also ensuring there are more jobs and a healthier economy.”
As part of the analysis, researchers assessed the likely impact across the country, estimating how great the jobs bonus would be in different parts of the country as smoking rates fall. If the sale of tobacco was eliminated, then millions would be returned to local economies.
References:
- The economic impact of a smokefree United Kingdom – 2024 update: technical report - https://ash.org.uk/uploads/GVAUpdate2025Report_FINAL_revised.pdf
- Tobacco Manufacturers Association, 2017 - https://web.archive.org/web/20220105160956/https://www.the-tma.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/TMA_Global-Business-Report_2017_v7.pdf
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Dave Cross
Journalist at POTVDave is a freelance writer; with articles on music, motorbikes, football, pop-science, vaping and tobacco harm reduction in Sounds, Melody Maker, UBG, AWoL, Bike, When Saturday Comes, Vape News Magazine, and syndicated across the Johnston Press group. He was published in an anthology of “Greatest Football Writing”, but still believes this was a mistake. Dave contributes sketches to comedy shows and used to co-host a radio sketch show. He’s worked with numerous start-ups to develop content for their websites.
