North Northants Council given funding for areas where 30% of adults smoke

North Northamptonshire Council will get the money for stop-smoking services over five years

A council is set to receive £2.4m from the government to target areas where almost one in three adults smoke.

The money for North Northamptonshire Council will be over five years for stop-smoking services.

According to the Office for National Statistics, 12.9% of adult in the UK smoke but it is as high as 30% in parts of Corby, the council said.

Jane Bethea, the authority's director of public health, said: "Clearly, we're not doing something right."

The money is part of £70m in additional funding per year to go towards councils to support people to stop smoking, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

North Northamptonshire Council will get £487,696 every year until 2029, beginning on 1 April.

The council heard 14.6% of people in North Northants smoke, slightly above the national average

A meeting of the authority's Health and Wellbeing Board heard the funding will be used to hire additional stop-smoking staff and increased spending on initiatives such as nicotine replacement therapy or e-cigarettes.

Some funds will also be used to support wider tobacco and youth vaping control efforts, such as local awareness campaigns.

The number of pregnant women and routine and manual workers smoking and the uptake in young children using vapes were highlighted as key prevention areas for the local authority.

Ms Bethea said: "We know that in some of our communities in Corby one in three adults still smoke, which is much much higher than the national average and much higher than the average for North Northants overall.

"We haven't got something right for this particular group of people. This is the beginning of that work."