WATCH: The consequences of the UK government's plans to phase out smoking

A long-term strategy to drive UK citizens to quit smoking will be a massive boost for public health and society with the benefits outweighing any future tax revenues for the government.

This is the opinion of Anthony Laverty, senior lecturer and public health researcher at London's Imperial College, who described to CGTN Europe the proposals announced by UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Wednesday as "positive" and "hugely significant."

Britain's government has revealed their ambitions to ban younger generations from ever buying cigarettes, a move that would give the country some of the world's toughest smoking rules and hurt the sales of major tobacco firms. 

If passed into law, the smoking age would rise by one year every year, potentially phasing out smoking among young people almost completely as soon as 2040.

"A 14-year-old today will never legally be sold a cigarette," Sunak told the Conservative Party conference in Manchester earlier in the week.

Sunak said smoking costs Britain's health services $20.6 billion a year, adding the government also needed to act on youth vaping.

Laverty, who works in the Public Health Policy Evaluation Unit and researches the impacts of tobacco control interventions and child health, added: "It's a big development that is going to be positive for public health and it's going to be positive for society. 

"It's worth saying there are the eye-catching changes like the age of sale, but there's also the doubling in funding for smoking cessation and a doubling, crucially, in funding for the enforcement around illicit tobacco. It's a real package of measures which go to make a huge difference."

The tobacco industry has criticized the proposals. British American Tobacco said banning the sales of cigarettes to future generations would be difficult to enforce, and risked creating a new category of "under-age adults."

"Enforcement of existing tobacco control policies is already under-resourced. An additional ban is only going to make it more difficult to police," the maker of Lucky Strike and Dunhill cigarettes said.  The Tobacco Manufacturers Association called it a "disproportionate attack" on adults' rights, adding: "The prohibition of legal products always has dangerous side effects and opens the door to criminal gangs to sell illegal products."

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The consequences for tobacco businesses could be monumental, especially, for example, with many pensions tied in with such companies.

Laverty admitted the fall-out for the tobacco industry will be far-reaching, but said: "The costs of tobacco to society outweigh what it brings in terms of tax. We know tobacco smoking is addictive. The majority of smokers want to stop, and so dealing with this is going to be positive for society."

The smoking policy would need to pass a free vote in the UK parliament. This means lawmakers can vote however they like rather than in line with party policies. If passed, Britain would become the first country in Europe to join New Zealand, which announced a similar plan last year, in banning smoking for future generations.

Denmark is already considering a similar move, and a number of nations also have targets to reduce smoking to minimal levels in the relatively near future.

"This is going to bring the UK into a global race," Laverty said. "New Zealand is the first place to have implemented this by raising the age of sale. We know globally that when you raise the age of sale, youth smoking goes down.

"We know in England, when the age of sale went from 16 to 18 years, there was a 30 percent reduction in youth smoking. So this a real big development."

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