Gen Z’s Clean Living Means £14 Billion in Lost ‘Sin Tax’ for UK

Generation Z’s reputation for monkish living — smoking and drinking far less than their predecessors — is turning into yet another problem for the UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt.

The decline of so-called “sin taxes” on tobacco and alcohol in recent decades have left a £14 billion ($17.1 billion) hole for the Treasury to fill as younger generations switch away from cigarettes to vapes and turn off the booze altogether.

The government would have taken in an additional £9.3 billion in revenue from tobacco duties and £4.7 billion for alcohol if the level of income from those ...