Smoking 'costing Black Country and Staffordshire councils £50 million a year'
Smoking costs councils in the Black Country and Staffordshire more than £50m a year, according to new figures.
The Action on Smoking and Health group has warned that the habit is adding to Britain's social care crisis putting a burden on local authorities to fork out millions on caring for people with smoking related illnesses.
In 2015/16 smokers in Dudley racked up the highest cost in the Black Country of £9.3m while Sandwell Council forked out £7.6m.
In Walsall smoking cost the council £7.1m to deal with while in Wolverhampton it cost £6.9m.
A Wolverhampton council spokesman said: "Smoking has a massively detrimental effect on individuals' own health and also puts additional pressure on NHS services."
In the whole of Staffordshire the smoking bill clocked in at just over £20m including £3.1m in Cannock, £2.9m in Stafford and £1.9m in South Staffordshire.
Staffordshire County Councillor Alan White, health and wellbeing boss, said: "The cost of smoking to Staffordshire is around £20million a year, but the cost to the individual is much more given that half of all smokers die from smoking-related illnesses."
Councillor Rachel Harris, cabinet member for health and wellbeing in Dudley, said:
"The effect of smoking on people's health and wellbeing inevitably has a significant impact on social care and other council services."
The figures have been included in an all-party Parliamentary group (APPG) on Smoking and Health Report published today.
Councils in Sandwell and Walsall were unable to comment.
