WITH the UK is on a mission to achieve smoke-free status by 2030 Warrington is one of the top areas in England to help people stop smoking.
Industry experts, from Haypp, have been collecting and analysing data from local authority Stop Smoking Services to understand which areas are making the biggest contribution to the UK’s smoke-free goals and Warrington is amongst the top!
This data covers the past twelve months’ performance of stop smoking services in England. 2025 marks the 25th anniversary of the establishment of these vitally important services in England. Stop-smoking services have played an important role in the decline in UK smoking rates, contributing to adult smoking prevalence in England reducing from 26 per cent in 2000 to under 13 per cent in 2024.
Some areas have very high self-reported quitting success rates; these local authorities are clearly effective at supporting people who engage with their services, but which areas are the best at getting locals to quit? The top performing authorities, based on the percentage of successful quitters, in 2024/25 are:
1. Wakefield 77%
2. North East Lincolnshire 76%
3. Wokingham 76%
4. Redcar and Cleveland 74%
5. Warrington 74%
6. Somerset 73%
7. Stoke-on-Trent 73%
8. North Yorkshire 71%
9. Bracknell Forest 69%
10. Sheffield 69%
Compared to the previous twelve months, some areas saw significant drops in the success rates of their stop-smoking services. Darlington, for example, had a quit rate of 83% in the previous twelve months, but fell out of the top ten and has a success rate of 65% this year. However, some local authorities are consistently leading the way, including Warrington, North East Lincolnshire, and Redcar and Cleveland, which have been part of the top five in the past two annual reports.
While the quit smoking rate is a good indication of which area of England could become smoke-free first, effective use of budgets is also an important factor to consider. Essex, Bracknell Forest, North Northamptonshire, Liverpool, and Slough all reported a low cost per quitter. These local authorities reported a cost per quitter of less than £250 compared to the national average of £718. and still managed to maintain a success rate above the national average of 54%. This gives a good indication that these areas have efficient programmes or are particularly good at targeting people who are ready to quit, and therefore may be racing ahead in the smoke-free effort.
On the flip side, some local authorities recorded a low success rate (below the national average of 54%) and a high cost per quitter (above the national average of £717), suggesting they are experiencing challenges in efficiently engaging with smokers, and spending more but helping fewer people to quit.
These areas include:
1. Worcestershire – £2552 cost per quitter & 44% success rate
2. Trafford – £2050 cost per quitter & 15% success rate
3. Hounslow – £1592 cost per quitter & 47% success rate
4. Cumberland – £1455 cost per quitter & 20% success rate
5. Gloucestershire – £1343 cost per quitter & 42% success rate
Markus Lindblad, from Haypp, said: “This data paints a really interesting picture, with significant variations in both effectiveness and efficiency between local authorities. Looking at what this means for national success, it’s clear that the UK’s smoke-free goals will depend on scaling what works in the high-performing areas and supporting the development of services in lower-performing areas.
“In order to achieve smoke-free status by 2030, we should learn from how the high-performing local authorities engage with smokers, and spread this knowledge across the UK, enabling the programme budgets to go further and help even more UK smokers to quit.”
