England may not be smoke-free until 2039, cancer charity warns

England will not be "smoke-free" until 2039, missing a key public health target by almost a decade, a new analysis has found.

- Denis Campbell

While smoking rates are in decline, they are not falling fast enough to realise the government's ambition of England being "smoke-free" by 2030, according to Cancer Research UK (CRUK).

Stark socioeconomic inequalities in smoking - with poorer people much more likely to light up than the well-off - will continue for decades to come, its research shows.

In 2019 the government declared its intention for England to be "smoke-free" by 2030, which it defined as 5% or less of adults still smoking. It is a key measure of progress towards improving the population's health, given smoking causes almost 80,000 deaths a year across the UK from cancer, heart disease and other conditions.

But CRUK's latest analysis of when the 5% target will be reached has concluded it will not be until 2039, even though smoking rates are expected to keep declining in the next few years.