Hampshire County Council is offering grants to help people quit smoking.

The grants, of up to £50,000 each, will be awarded to district and borough councils, as well as voluntary, community and social enterprise organisations.

The funding will support initiatives to reduce smoking from November 2024 to March 2028.

Cllr Russell Oppenheimer, the county council's cabinet member for health and wellbeing, said: "These grants underline our strong commitment to tackling the harm caused by smoking robustly.

READ MORE: More than £15,000 raised by golf club for leukaemia charity

"They form part of our wider Smokefree Hampshire programme which aims to significantly increase the number of Hampshire smokers quitting each year by 2030, from the current 3,500 a year."

He added: "Smoking remains the single biggest preventable cause of ill health and premature death in England, costing the taxpayer millions and placing a huge burden on the NHS and social care.

"Therefore, helping people to quit smoking, as well as preventing them from starting in the first place, is absolutely vital."

The Smokefree programme, which includes collaborations with GPs, hospitals, social housing and adult social care providers, aims to boost referrals into the county's free, expert-led quit smoking service, Smokefree Hampshire.

The grant programme will be funded from the local authority's ringfenced public health grant.