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Worsening health of Britons is holding back UK economy, Andy Haldane warns
The worsening health of the British people is holding back economic growth for the first time since the Industrial Revolution after years of underinvestment in services, former chief economist at the Bank of England, Andy Haldane has warned.
Speaking at the Health Foundation thinktank’s annual REAL Challenge lecture, Haldane said the economy was being held back after a sharp fall in the number of people in the British workforce since the onset of the Covid pandemic, however noting that the global health emergency had only served as a “tipping point”.
He said: “Spending on healthcare systems, at least by G7 comparisons, the UK sits towards the bottom of the pack [...] It should come as no surprise that we therefore see macroeconomic headwinds such as a record number of unfilled vacancies. We haven’t got enough people.”
The Bank of England recently warned it may need to raise interest rates further to deter workers from demanding inflation-linked pay rises in response to labour shortages. Interest rates have soared since last year to prevent what the central bank says are the second round effects from increases in earnings on inflation over the next couple of years.
A report by the newly established Commission on the Future of Employment Support found that the UK is one of only five countries in the industrialised world with a weaker labour market than before the Covid-19 pandemic and is on course to have the worst record by next year. About 600,000 workers have dropped out of the workforce, including 200,000 out of work for five years or more due to ill health. An estimated 30,000 more people with long Covid and are unable to work. About 50,000 more people have retired early in the last two years, while the number of people who have never worked swelled by 250,000 with two-thirds of this group accounted for by students and a third by people with ill health or disabilities not being able to get into work rather than leaving it.
Source: Guardian, 10 November 2022
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Bolton campaign to stop trade in illegal tobacco to protect kids
As part of Greater Manchester Integrated Care Partnership’s ambition to make smoking history, it has relaunched its Keep it Out campaign across the 10 boroughs of Greater Manchester to help reduce the supply and demand for illegal tobacco.
Following over 50 reports from concerned residents and businesses in the last year, the trading standards team has been active across Bolton seizing more than 470,000 illicit cigarettes and 74kg of illicit hand rolling tobacco through Operation CeCe, a partnership between National Trading Standards and HMRC to tackle illegal tobacco.
Even though the volume of both legal and illegal tobacco has reduced over the last two decades, Greater Manchester Integrated Care Partnership is urging the government to do more to make smoking history including more action to tackle the illegal tobacco trade and a new properly funded national tobacco control plan which includes a levy on tobacco manufacturer profits to fund prevention work, support to quit and enforcement activity.
Andrea Crossfield, Making Smoking History Lead at NHS Greater Manchester Integrated Care, said: “Tackling illegal tobacco is vital to make smoking history for future generations, and to help reduce the harms of smoking related illnesses such as lung cancer, heart disease and respiratory illness in local communities. Legal or illegal, all tobacco contains a toxic cocktail of chemicals which will kill two in three people who continue to smoke regularly. But illegal cigarettes are often responsible for getting children started on this lethal addiction – one that most people wish they hadn’t started. This is because of their availability at pocket money prices, and because dealers simply don’t care that they’re selling to children. No one wants their child to get hooked on smoking, but we know that most children who start smoking do continue. By reporting illegal tobacco sales, you’re helping us keep our communities safe and smokefree.”
Kate Pike, Trading Standards North West Lead on Tobacco, said: “The lengths that people go to, to sell illegal tobacco to children, even in school uniform, are quite astonishing. But we are working with partners across Greater Manchester to crack down on illegal tobacco sellers by acting on intelligence. The illegal tobacco trade is run by criminals who exploit other vulnerable people, such as care leavers and immigrants. Many of these individuals are taken advantage of and coerced into living in horrible conditions, smuggling products and acting as a front for gangs involved in organised crime. We are encouraging residents and responsible businesses across Greater Manchester to report illegal tobacco sales, so enforcement teams can take more products off the street. It is simply not acceptable to buy or sell illegal tobacco products.”
Source: Bolton News, 10 November 2022
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More NHS funding for North East's deprived areas vital to avoid 'twindemic'
The Government needs to channel funding to the NHS in deprived areas and follow through on levelling up to help fight a "twindemic" of flu and Covid-19 this winter, academics from Newcastle University have warned. Showcasing their research on covid health outcomes, lead author on the study, Dr Vic McGowan said those living in the most deprived communities shouldered the greatest burden from Covid-19, and called for “urgent” targeted support for the NHS in the North East of England ahead of the “twindemic”.
Professor Clare Bambra said: “Our research shows that Covid-19 is an unequal pandemic [...] Much of [the poorer health outcomes seen during Covid-19 in the region] has to do with how poverty undermines people's immune systems and their health. The most crucial impact is that we have much higher rates of the clinical risk factors - things like diabetes, COPD and heart disease."
Citing the shockingly high rates of child poverty in the North East, Prof Bambra added: "We did this study before the cost-of-living crisis and I really am despairing about what we are facing in the North East. The levelling-up agenda in the UK has the potential to reduce inequalities between areas of high and low deprivation, this would go some way to preventing inequalities arising in future pandemics. When you are looking at how to reduce inequalities and health inequalities, what you have to look at is reducing poverty."
Source: Chronicle Live, 9 November 2022
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More than 500 illegal vapes aimed at children seized from shops in Barking
Officers from Barking and Dagenham Council’s Trading Standards confiscated more than 500 illicit vapes last Wednesday, after visiting two shops and finding they were selling products that did not comply with UK regulations. Both shops will be given written warnings and will continue to be monitored by council officers. If they carry on selling these products, they could face further prosecution.
Councillor Syed Ghani, cabinet member for Enforcement and Community Safety, said: “Local businesses have a responsibility to sell products that are safe for use by our residents. These two shops did not follow the UK regulations and are potentially putting people at risk. Seizures like this show why the work of our Trading Standards officers is so important, and they continue to do fantastic work to protect our residents.”
If residents are aware of shops selling products illegally, they should email [email protected]
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Californians back flavoured tobacco ban
California voters on Tuesday night voted to uphold a 2020 state law banning the sale of most flavoured tobacco products in a victory for anti-tobacco advocates eager to lessen the appeal of smoking to young people through enticing flavours. By a decisive margin, supporters rejected the tobacco industry’s attempt to block the ban through a referendum. This makes California the fifth state to impose a flavour ban after Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey and Rhode Island.
The tobacco industry initiated the referendum that stopped the implementation of CA S.B. 793(19R), by former state Senator Jerry Hill. The law bans the sale of flavoured tobacco products in storefronts and vending machines statewide, with the exception of loose leaf and hookah tobacco, and premium cigars. The deep-pocketed industry contributed $25 million on the referendum but was outspent by the measure’s supporters, who raised $71 million — almost all of it from billionaire former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
The former presidential candidate has financed other flavoured tobacco initiatives, including San Francisco’s successful 2018 effort to uphold its sweeping flavour ban.
By simply delaying the enactment of S.B. 793 for nearly two years, tobacco companies including R.J. Reynolds have taken in some $830 million in revenue from menthol cigarettes alone since 2021, according to the Yes on Prop 31 campaign.
More than 160 local governments in California have already imposed some form of a flavoured tobacco ban, according to the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids.
Source: Politico, 9 November 2022
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Private members bill on tobacco retail licencing
Yesterday (Wednesday 9th November), Bob Blackman MP, Chairman of the APPG on Smoking and Health, introduced a private members’ bill in the Commons which would introduce mandatory tobacco licences for retailers, underpinned by age verification for anyone aged under 25. Mr Blackman reminded MPs that tobacco retail licencing was recommended by Javed Khan in his independent review of smoking earlier this year.
Remarking on the longstanding requirement for retailers to hold an alcohol licence, Mr Blackman highlighted the fact that there is no such requirement to sell tobacco, despite cigarettes being “much more harmful and addictive than alcohol.”
He said: “Requiring tobacco retailers to be licensed could help to prevent sales to children and sales of illicit tobacco by giving local authorities greater powers to take effective action against those who do not adhere to the regulations. Retail licensing would also protect honest small businesses up and down the country, which sell only tax paid products to adults, but are undercut every day by those willing to sell smuggled tobacco to anybody who wants it—an illicit trade run by criminal gangs, with dishonest retailers acting as their conduit to the public [..] This Bill would rectify that egregious gap in the regulation of retailers, meeting an important recommendation in Javed Khan’s independent review into making smoking obsolete.”
The Bill will be read a second time on Friday 9 December.
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