Council spent £661 on every smoker that it helped quit - and it's 'proud' to help
Council spent £800,948 on helping people to quit habit
New figures show that Rotherham Council spent £661 on every smoker that it helped quit the habit in the last year, giving the authority the sixth highest stop smoking success rate across the country.
The £661 spend is £102 less than the average for English councils at £763.
Rotherham's stop smoking service cost £661 for each of the 1,212 people who quit with its help in the year to March 2026, according to NHS England figures.
The council recorded £800,948 of spending on the service.
Rotherham was 102nd highest of the 143 England council areas ranked.
Of the council areas ranked in the research by award-winning UK online vape shop Ecigone, Telford and Wrekin spent the most at £2,381 for each quitter, and Hammersmith and Fulham the least, at £164.
The figures are from councils’ returns to NHS England and include a council's total spending on its service, including staff, training, publicity and the patches, gum and medicines it hands out divided by the number of people who said they had not smoked at all in the two weeks before their four-week check.
Medicines on prescription are not counted in the figures.
Ten of England’s 153 council areas are not ranked, including Barnsley, Doncaster and Sheffield, which have no spending figure.
Vapes were used in 76,491 of the 265,502 quit attempts the services supported, on their own or alongside nicotine replacement such as patches or gum, and 41,109 of the people who stopped had used one.
Rotherham Council’s director of public health, Emily Parry-Harries, said: “We are proud to have ranked the sixth highest across the country for our stop smoking success rate.
“Last year, we helped 1,212 people quit smoking for good.
“It is a real testament to our community stop smoking service, Rotherham Healthwave, and their commitment to help residents lead healthier lives.
“In Rotherham, the percentage of adults smoking has dropped from 13.3 per cent to 12.7 per cent.
“We remain dedicated to supporting residents who want to stop smoking by investing in effective local services that allow people a smoke free future.
“Anyone looking to quit smoking can get free support from Rotherham Healthwave. The service offers personalised advice, one-to-one support, and access to a range of evidence-based stop smoking treatments, helping people find the approach that works best for them and giving them the best chance of quitting for good.
“To find out more or self-refer, contact Rotherham Healthwave on 01709 718720.”
Shane Margereson, founder of Ecigone, said: “Every quitter in these figures is someone who was off cigarettes a month after setting a quit date, and that’s worth a great deal to them and to the people around them.
“Councils run their services in very different ways, with their own advisers or through GPs and pharmacies, and with different mixes of patches, tablets and vapes, so a cost for each quitter only tells part of the story.”