Smoking accounts for approximately 230 deaths in the borough each year, reports Grace Howarth, Local Democracy Reporter

Enfield Council has been awarded around £2m of government funding to help residents stop smoking.

A report shows smoking accounts for approximately 230 deaths and costs the council £209m a year.

Speaking at a health and safe communities scrutiny panel yesterday (Wednesday 25th), Dudu Sher-Arami, the council’s director of public health, said: “This is a really great news story for Enfield residents, we haven’t had a smoking cessation service in the borough for many years.

“We have been allocated additional resources from the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID) specifically to do this piece of work, so the paper you’ve received is our plan about how to make that happen.”

Grant funding for the borough-wide stop smoking service will be received over five years, from 2024 to 2029, and depending on prevalence will amount to approximately £2m.

Data from last year indicated a 15.5% smoking prevalence in the borough, which equates to 52,661 residents.

Glenn Stewart, the council smoking report’s author and assistant director of public health, explained the GP data was only a “guide” as it logged all smoking “preferences” including people who smoked occasionally or had since stopped.

The council has estimated the figure lies between 40,000 and 50,000 people and aims to reduce this by two thirds, in line with the government’s target for the UK to be ‘smoke free’, meaning only a 5% prevalence or less, by 2030.

In Enfield, the highest prevalence of smokers live in the south and east of the borough, with 23.7% of residents in the Lower Edmonton and Jubilee wards being smokers, the joint-highest level locally. The next highest number is in Edmonton Green ward, with 22.3%.

The new council stop-smoking service offer will include both face-to-face and digital appointments over six weeks.

Conservative councillor and panel vice-chair Lee Chamberlain, questioned if the new service would monitor vaping figures and ensure people weren’t “shifting habits”.

Dudu said: “With ODID the minimum they’re asking for us is to reach those targets we’ve identified in the paper.

“As part of our contract, monitoring and supporting the organisation that brings the tender [ODID], we will have a way of looking more closely and understanding the impact our work is having and evaluate the stop smoking service.

“They’ll be a suite of indicators that we will use on a regular basis to understand the impact.”

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