London Tobacco Alliance
“Across London already there is a lot of really great work going on in the NHS and in local authorities to help people stop smoking. The aim of the London Tobacco Alliance is to bring leaders together from across the system. As the most modifiable health behaviour, it is important to maintain a strong focus on eliminating smoking and its associated harms. aspiration that we have around Smokefree 2030 and to make that possible”
Dr Somen Banerjee
Smoking Cessation Lead Association of Directors of Public Health London
The London Tobacco Alliance (LTA) is a partnership, launched in October 2022, working to make London smokefree by 2030. The alliance is made up of partners from across local authorities including directors of public health and local councillors, the NHS, academics Greater London Authority, London Councils, and voluntary sector organisations.
Across London lots of great work has taken place across organisations to support Londoners to stop smoking. However, what was missing across the capital was a body to bring partners together who are all working towards the same goal. Prioritising smoking cessation and tobacco control at regional level enables a focus on undertaking activity once-for-London bringing economies of scale.
Background
Smoking is the biggest avoidable cause of death, disability and social inequality in health in the UK. Smokers lose an average of 10 years of their lives, and most will have many years of ill-health caused by this addiction. Data from the Adult Population Survey in Autumn 2023 showed that 11.7% of adults in London smoke (around 807,000 people). In May 2023, Cancer Research UK (CRUK) estimated that tobacco causes more than 4,300 deaths each year in the capital. In addition, Action on Smoking and Health estimates that smoking costs London £7.3 billion a year.
In 2019, the government published its green paper on preventative health – Advancing our health: prevention in the 2020s. This paper announced an ambition for England to become ‘smokefree’ by 2030, meaning only 5% of the population would smoke by then. The Khan review, published in 2022, set out a package of 15 recommendations aimed at supporting the 2030 ambition. And in March 2024 the government introduced the Tobacco and Vapes Bill that will mean that children turning 15 this year or younger will never legally be able to be sold tobacco.
The LTA aims to make London smokefree by 2030 by:
- Bringing partners and experts together to share best-practice, innovations and insights. This gives a better understanding of what is being delivered in London and any gaps where work at scale will bring benefits.
- Ensuring a focus on addressing health inequalities attributable to tobacco.
- Sharing and creating effective system-wide approaches collaboratively.
Impact so far
Since being set up the LTA has established itself as an impactful strategic London wide body for tobacco control and smoking cessation work.
The alliance has bought alongside them numerous partnerships and have been able to develop solutions across London and share best practice work taking place.
Some of the amazing work achieved so far includes:
- Establishing effective partnerships across London – including:
- setting up a London Smoke Free Councillors’ network to ensure health and well-being leads have access to top expertise and evidence around smoking.
- working with the London behavioural insights network to produce support materials for local authorities with new finding for smoking cessation.
- partnering with London trading standards to engage with Londoners to understand their views on illicit tobacco.
- collaborating with ThriveLDN to deliver a webinar around mental health and smoking.
- Delivering London wide messaging and views – promoting our position statement on vaping as agreed by all LTA partners.
- Sharing knowledge and best practice across London – delivering youth vaping webinars and tobacco industry insights webinars.
- Yearly London wide campaigns – Developing campaign toolkits for partners to use to promote non-smoking day and Stoptober and ensure unified messaging across London.
- Managing and organising the London Tobacco Control Network (LTCN) where up to 70 members from across London meet monthly to share best practice and innovative models of moving London to a Smokefree 2030
Stop Smoking London is the delivery arm of the LTA and has also achieved:
- A relaunch of the Stop Smoking London website as the delivery arm of the London Tobacco Alliance, which has had 210,078 hits since March 2023.
- Launching a new text messaging service in January 2024 to support people to quit smoking with 1500 people signing up so far.
- During Stoptober 2023, social media posts by Stop Smoking London reached over 120,000 people on Twitter and appeared in over 58,000 Facebook posts.
- During No Smoking Day there were 9,900 new site users on the Stop Smoking London website.
“The London Tobacco Alliance has been highly effective in bringing together a fantastic group of partners to understand what’s being delivered across the city, where there are gaps and how, collectively, we can help to fill those gaps. The London Tobacco Alliance has highlighted how working together we are more than the sum or our parts when it comes to helping people to quit smoking – and under its leadership and direction there has been a renewed focus and energy to support London’s Smokefree agenda.”
Professor Kevin Fenton
Regional Director
Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (London)
Looking ahead
The London Tobacco Alliance and Stop Smoking London will be further developing work with partners to achieve a Smokefree London by 2030. With smoking being recognised as the single largest driver of health inequalities across London and the country, a strong focus on health inequalities will underpin their work.
We will build on the objectives the government has indicated that it will be bringing forward to ensure the next generation can never legally buy cigarettes to further the Smokefree agenda in London.
During the year, the LTA will be launching its innovative digital support offer to smokers looking to quit. Smokers in London will have access, through a digital platform, to professional smoking cessation advice and support on quitting and be able to receive free vapes or nicotine replacement therapy. This will complement the local smoking cessation services run by London boroughs.
Find out more and stay up to date with the work of the London Tobacco Alliance on their website.