Islington Green Party has called for Islington’s Labour Council to stop investing in tobacco firms after an FoI request by an NHS nurse revealed that it had put £13 million into tobacco companies as part of its £750m pension pot.
Emma Dixon of Islington Greens said: “Smoking is estimated to cost the NHS £5.2 billion every year. And Islington Council has committed itself to a strategy working towards a smoke-free Islington by 2020. So why is the Council lining the pockets of the tobacco firms who are doing so much to damage the health of residents?
This is a fairness issue: smoking costs Islington £246 million per year. Over 1 in 4 adults in Islington (27.5%) are smokers and this average is higher than that for the rest of London or the national average. The Council’s own smokefree strategy acknowledges that at a national and local level smoking is the most significant factor that creates a huge gap in health and life expectancy between the most well off and least well off.
Islington has one of the highest levels of COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) in the country: the primary cause of that is smoking and it is causing significant numbers of premature deaths among residents.
During her time on the Council, Green councillor Katie Dawson highlighted this as an area of concern and asked the Council to look into it. It is depressing to discover that after two years of a Labour council, the Council continues to invest in an industry which is contributing to health inequalities and causing poor health among Islington’s residents.”
Labour councillors have defended the investment on the basis that they are ‘required to maximise returns from the pension fund’s investments’. But an investigation in 2011 by FairPensions, the campaign for responsible investment, have cast serious doubt over that assertion. The FairPensions report suggests that pension fund managers may be hiding behind a smokescreen created to avoid serious consideration of ethical matters.
Emma Dixon added: “With some councils already omitting tobacco from their portfolios, the report suggests that pension funds can indeed pull their investments if the move doesn’t significantly damage returns. Here in London, the London borough of Newham has already cut tobacco out of its investment portfolio. There is absolutely no reason why Islington council should not do the same, and we call upon them to reconsider, and to put the health of residents first.”