Vaping could cost users £600 more a year from today, under a new tax crackdown aimed at creating a ‘smoke-free generation’.
A new levy of £2.20 per 10ml of vape liquid means a heavy user getting through around 270 bottles a year could face the £600 annual hit, while a bottle currently marketed at around £3.99 could now cost almost £7.
Smokers will also be hit, with a 44p rise on a typical pack of 20 cigarettes – equivalent to around £160 a year for someone smoking a pack a day.
Combined with other duty increases, the overall rise is expected to be about £1.20 a pack, which could see heavy smokers spending an extra £440 a year.
A typical 50g pouch of tobacco is also expected to rise by around £4.20, amounting to almost £110 extra a year for someone getting through a pouch every fortnight – or £218 for those buying one a week.
The changes are designed to ensure vaping remains cheaper than smoking, while discouraging young people from taking up nicotine products.
They come just weeks before a UK-wide ban on the sale of vapes and nicotine products to under-18s comes into force on October 29.
This will make it illegal to sell nicotine or vape products to anyone under 18, including nicotine-free vapes, e-liquids and nicotine pouches.
Adults who buy – or attempt to buy – vapes or nicotine products for anyone underage will also be committing an offence.
Evidence now suggests that vaping is not nearly as safe as once thought
The Government is also set to ban people from vaping in their own cars if children are present, under new laws aimed at boosting the nation’s health.
All existing places where smoking is already banned will also become vape-free, including workplaces, pubs and public transport.
Meanwhile, smoking and vaping will be prohibited in some outdoor areas for the first time, including children’s playgrounds and outside schools, subject to consultation.
The Department of Health and Social Care said the measures would protect children and vulnerable people, including from the harms of breathing in secondhand smoke.
The new tax marks another step towards implementing the Tobacco and Vapes Bill, which is progressing through Parliament.
The regulations were first outlined in the 2024 Budget, with vape traders required to apply to HMRC for approval.
Speaking about the changes in August, Rachel Nixon, director of indirect tax, said: ‘Manufacturers, importers and warehouse keepers should be preparing to pay any of the new excise duty due, to comply with the new requirements.’
Businesses and sellers found to be flouting the new rules could face legal action and be banned from trading.
But critics have raised concerns that making vaping substantially more expensive could dissuade smokers from using e-cigarettes to quit.
Evidence shows that while vaping is not risk-free, it is far less harmful than smoking tobacco, which exposes users to thousands of chemicals, many of them toxic and capable of causing cancer.
‘It is worrying that public perception of vaping are now so far out of step with the evidence,’ Hazel Cheeseman, chief executive of Action on Smoking and Health, said.
‘For smokers, these misconceptions have real consequences.
‘The aim of this tax is sensible: vapes should not be available at pocket-money prices that make them easily accessible to children.
‘But there is a careful balance to strike. Vaping needs to remain significantly cheaper than smoking so that price doesn’t become a barrier for smokers who want to quit.’
A major review of vaping by King’s College London found that e-cigarettes posed a fraction of the risk of tobacco smoking, with vapers significantly less exposed to harmful substances.
However, another study involving more than 4.5 million former smokers, published in the journal Nature Medicine, found that switching from cigarettes to vapes may not reduce lung cancer risk.
Around 5.4 million adults now use e-cigarettes daily or occasionally, compared with 4.9 million who smoke – meaning roughly one in ten adults now vape.
Smoking remains one of the biggest preventable causes of death, with research showing that around one in two long-term smokers will die from a smoking-related disease, including lung cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), heart disease and stroke.
