More than £168 million of pension money from councils in the West Midlands has been invested in alcohol and tobacco firms - despite the authorities spending millions combatting smoking and drinking.

British American Tobacco, Philip Morris International, Diageo and Heineken are among 30 alcohol and tobacco businesses which have received money from the West Midlands Pension Fund (WMPF).

Smoking costs Birmingham about £24 million each year due to premature deaths, researchers claim, and the city council's public health budget is about £80 million a year.

Authorities have also invested millions to combat smoking. Coventry City Council has a five-year 'Smoke Free Strategy' and this year budgeted to plough £1.28 million into it.

A total of 17.8 per cent of the West Midlands' residents are smokers, according to Public Health England.

That puts major pressure on the NHS in the region, with almost 1,800 out of every 100,000 hospital admissions down to smoking.

In Birmingham around 4,500 people die every year from illnesses related to cigarettes.

Staff smoking breaks are thought to cost companies in the West Midlands £523 million a year.

Elsewhere, government figures for alcohol show drinking kills 52 people for every 100,000 deaths in Coventry and reduces life expectancy by 15 months men and six months for women in the city.

Robert Alden, leader of the Conservative group on Birmingham City Council, said it was important WMPF invested for a strong return.

He said: "When you are dealing with pension funds, the important thing is experts are making the decisions to get the best possible return.

"You can't have the council having an oversight on that."

WMPF's total £168 million investment in alcohol and tobacco equates to 1.55 per cent of the total £11 billion fund.

This comes after it emerged the pension fund had ploughed £51.6 million into weapons firms.

The WMPF said it did not make investments based on ethics and felt its ability to influence the behaviour of these types of organisations would be lost if it withdrew investment.

It said, in a statement: "The fund's pensions committee has decided not to exclude investments on ethical grounds.

"The fund recognises that members hold varying and sometimes conflicting views of what is acceptable for a wide range of environmental, social and governance issues.

"From a pure financial perspective, if companies indirectly or directly involved in subjectively deemed unethical activities were excluded for investment purposes, there would be very few companies left in which to invest.

"This means that the fund holds investments that some would find objectionable including companies linked to the aerospace and defence sector.

"The committee prefers to follow an approach of active shareholder engagement to help influence the corporate behaviour of the companies in which it invests in order to protect shareholder value."

WMPF Alcohol and Tobacco Holdings

Altria Group £4,596,930

Ambev ADR £1,582,285

Anadolu Efes £204,474

Anheuser-Busch InBev £12,295,506

Asahi Group Holdings £1,637,503

British American Tobacco £28,961,850

British American Tobacco Malaysia £4,284,600

Brown Forman B £575,501

Carlsberg (B) £3,844,485

Constellation Brands A £826,737

Davide Campari-Milano SpA £321,134

Diageo £25,898,163

Heineken Holding £1,031,171

Heineken NV £7,053,886

Hite Jinro £101,159

Imperial Tobacco £13,998,660

Japan Tobacco £4,247,698

Kirin Holdings Co Ltd £1,427,910

KT&G £2,030,986

Molson Coors CL B £383,608

Pernord Ricard £7,475,163

Philip Morris International £5,236,508

Remy Cointreau £216,147

Reynolds American £1,635,173

SAB Miller £32,715,281

SAB Miller PLC ZAR £3,714,454

Sapporo Holdings £171,734

Swedish Match £876,546

Takara Holdings £146,016

Treasury Wine Estates £612,860