North East health campaigners Fresh and Balance respond to Budget announcement
North East health campaigners have reacted with anger and disappointment to a “tax giveaway to alcohol companies” in Budget 2024 which they say puts more lives at risk.
Fresh and Balance say the alcohol duty freeze from August 2024 to February 2025 is a missed opportunity which could have raised vital funds for front line services including the NHS while also addressing record levels of alcohol deaths, hospital admissions and liver disease.
They welcomed further planned increases on tobacco duty - but also sounded caution that a new tax on vaping must ensure a balance between preventing youth access and ensuring smokers are not put off switching to vapes, currently the most popular quitting aid in the UK. The government has today published a consultation on the design of the new vaping duty.
Ailsa Rutter OBE, Director of Fresh and Balance, said: “We find it staggering the Chancellor has come out with another tax giveaway to alcohol companies. It is unbelievable to see yet another alcohol duty freeze when harms are at record levels and more people are dying from alcohol than ever before.
“Like tobacco alcohol is a group one carcinogen. It is driving nearly 1 million hospital admissions a year to our NHS through cancer, heart disease and other conditions, yet it is treated as an essential commodity.
“Two thirds of all alcohol sales in the UK are to heavy drinkers. Quite simply, cheap alcohol is killing people right now and the measures outlined in today’s budget will put even more lives at risk.”
With regards to measures announced on vaping including a 12 week consultation launched today she added: “There is compelling evidence vaping is significantly less harmful than smoking tobacco and helping many people in the North East to quit smoking for good.
“But vaping is not risk free and we don’t want to see children start vaping or smoking. Too many children are being sold vapes and we need tighter restrictions on the way they are packaged and promoted so they not appealing to children but are still accessible and affordable to the many adult smokers who want to quit.
“We need to remember it is tobacco use that is killing so many of our loved ones. There is so much more progress we need to make to reduce this devastating impact and the Government should be reassured that the public and retailers are behind them.
“This consultation will give us a good opportunity to explore vaping tax proposals in detail and ensure they ensure they support smokers to switch and put lethal smoking behind them whilst also reducing appeal to young people.
“We can be sure that tobacco companies whose profits are based on combustible tobacco will likely applaud anything that delays or undermines the UK’s mission to help more smokers to quit and to create a smokefree generation.”