Tobacco control leaders across the region welcome tax increases in budget

The Government is making the following changes to tax on tobacco and vapes:

• Confirmed tobacco tax escalator of RPI + 2% and RPI +12% for hand-rolled tobacco
• Flat-rate tax of £2.20 per 10ml bottle of vape liquid, to be introduced from October 2026
• A one-off increase for tobacco tax in October 2026 to maintain the price differential with vaping and incentivise smokers to switch. This will raise the price of 100 cigarettes and 50 grams of hand-rolled tobacco by £2.20. This is estimated to be equivalent to the value of the tax on vape liquid.  

Associate Director of the Humber and North Yorkshire Centre for Excellence in Tobacco Control, Scott Crosby said:
“The cost of smoking to society and the huge strain on the NHS far outweighs the revenue created by tobacco taxes. Continued rises help to encourage smokers to quit and reduce the uptake among young people.

“The new vape fluid tax will help to reduce access to cheap products for children, and importantly also create more powers to tackle illegal imports. 

“It’s important that vapes and tobacco keep a price difference to ensure that they are still an incentive for smokers to switch to a less harmful option, but I’m pleased this has been set at a flat rate” 

Public Health Charity, ASH has also advocated for a levy on tobacco companies, as have many other leading health organisations. 

Commenting on its absence from the budget, Scott Crosby said:
“Many people would find it shocking to know that tobacco companies can make nearly £1 billion in profit each year in the UK, through addicting their customers to a product which destroys families by killing their loved ones. 

"The Government could have raised an additional £700 million through a levy structured to reduce the profitability of tobacco companies and cap their prices. 

"Like ASH, we encourage the government to look at this again as we know this would be popular with the public.”