The impact of high-risk tobacco, alcohol and food consumption on productivity and worklessness

Background The current economic landscape and cost of living crisis has highlighted the need to draw out and highlight the link between poor health caused by consumption of unhealthy products and worklessness.

There remains an ongoing belief that the economy benefits from the sale of some or all of these products, and the cost-of-living crisis is being used as a reason to delay key public health policies such as restrictions on multibuy deals and junk food advertising.

Aims This economic analysis to quantify the total productivity costs of unhealthy consumption of smoking, alcohol and HFSS foods on the UK economy will inform the economic evidence base of the harms caused by these products.

Methods The analysis will use UK survey datasets from the Understanding Society (USoc) and Health Survey for England (HSE) to quantify lost earnings and lower employment across the risk factors. The full methodology can be found in the proposal attached. What value will the programme of work deliver?

The findings from this research, commissioned from Landman Economics, will be used immediately to evidence an advocacy strategy report due to be published in September 2023 as well as: • Capitalise on the current political priorities driven by the economic environment • Feed into the work being done by other stakeholders in the space • Provide a strong foundation for engaging those on the right and left with concerns about the economic value of these unhealthy commodities • Engage with employers, trade unions and other to neutralise industry arguments that regulation of products damages the economy.