There will be no smokers in Wirral by 2027 with Sefton to follow two years later, research has predicted.
The Merseyside borough will become the first in the North West to go smoking-free, the study by Frontier Economics for the tobacco firm Philip Morris found. Sefton is set to give up the habit by 2029.
The broader picture shows that England won’t see the end of smoking until after 2050 and the government will miss its smoking-free target by a decade.
To meet the target, the more than four million smokers nationwide would need to quit or switch to a less harmful alternative such as e-cigarettes or heated tobacco.
That amount is 2.3 million (or 200,000 every year) more than existing forecasts for the next 11 years predict.
Mark MacGregor, Director of External Affairs at Phillip Morris, said: “A rapid increase in the awareness and use of smoke-free alternatives will be vital to help achieve a smoke-free society faster.
“Over four million smokers need to be persuaded to quit altogether or switch to a less harmful alternative if the Government is to realise its smoke-free ambition.
“Critical to achieving that goal will be ensuring that smokers in the North West have the facts about alternatives, like e-cigarettes and heated tobacco. Currently, too many smokers believe that the alternatives are as harmful as smoking or are simply unaware that they exist.”
The research also highlights a variety of measures and policy interventions that could accelerate the decline in cigarette smokers to 5% by 2030.
These include a rapid increase in the number of smokers switching to smoke-free alternatives and reversing the decline in smokers quitting through NHS Stop Smoking Services.
The report found that, since 2012, smoking in England has declined at almost twice the rate seen between 1993 and 2011 and the downward trend in smoking prevalence is likely due in part to greater use of e-cigarettes.
However, despite there being 3.2 million e-cigarette users in Great Britain, the growth of vaping is now slowing.
Data from the public health charity Action on Smoking and Health, indicates that there were only 300,000 new vapers in 2018 in Great Britain, compared with 800,000 in 2014.
