By Henry Featherstone and Robert Nash.

Smoking is the single, largest preventable cause of serious ill health and kills tens of thousands of people in England every year.  It is a popular myth that smoking is a net contributor to the economy – our research finds that every single cigarette smoked costs the country 6.5 pence. In order to balance income and costs, tobacco duty should be progressively increased until the full societal cost of smoking is met through taxation.