Liverpool aims to become smoking free city within a generation

Liverpool aims to stub out smoking for good

Transcript

00:00Millions of pounds is to be pumped into a brand new strategy to make Liverpool smoke-free.

00:05A wide-ranging approach set out over the next six years has been set in motion by council

00:10officials to stamp out its biggest preventable killer. On average, smokers in Liverpool spend

00:15almost two and a half thousand pounds a year on the habit. Now the authorities aiming to drive

00:19down the proportion of those reaching for a cigarette to just five percent by 2030,

00:24down from 17 percent this year. That's the equivalent of around 70,000 people.

00:28Smoking remains the leading cause of preventable death and illness in Liverpool,

00:32with two-thirds of smokers dying from a smoking-related disease.

00:35Smoking also costs Liverpool £623 million a year. Around £200 million is placed on

00:41health and social care costs, as well as £4 million dealing with smoke-related fires.

00:45The strategy also covers wider ambitions, such as creating more smoke-free places and robust

00:50enforcement around illicit tobacco and nicotine products and selling products to minors.

00:54The plan, known as stopping the start, was drawn up following an independent review in 2022.