Resident of Corby says old school town will continue to smoke

North Northamptonshire Council has been given £2.4m to help people in town's like Corby quit smoking

A resident living in an "old school" town where as many as 30% of people smoke cigarettes has said they do not think locals will quit the habit.

North Northamptonshire Council (NNC) will recieve £2.4m of government funding to help people quit smoking.

MPs have backed a plan to ban anyone born after 2009 from buying cigarettes.

Speaking before Tuesday's vote, South Northamptonshire MP Andrea Leadsom said future generations would judge the decision as "commonsensical".

Conservative MP Ms Leadsom said: "In decades to come, our great-grandchildren will look back and think why on earth didn't they do it sooner."

As many as 30% of people living in parts of Corby are smokers, figures suggest

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

Eileen Lee, a resident of Corby, said the figures were not surprising in respect of the town's industrial steelworks history.

She said: "That's very much the mindset and that gets handed down from generation to generation.

"My friends smoke, my family smoke. I'm one of these people who want to quit, but then quit and start again."

About 14.6% of people in North Northamptonshire smoke, which is slightly above the national average

The £2.4m awarded to NNC is part of £70m in additional funding per year to go towards councils to support people to stop smoking.

NNC will receive £487,696 every year until 2029, beginning on 1 April.

Speaking last month, Jane Bethea, NNC's director of public health, 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."