Government's low-cost alcohol initiative lacks bottle

18th Jan 2011 14:24

The coalition government is set to announce new measures on Tuesday designed to cut back on the practice of retailers offering deep discounts on alcoholic drinks.Though the new proposals will not prevent shops from selling alcoholic drinks as "loss leaders", it is understood that the government will seek to set a floor on the price of alcoholic drinks by ensuring that booze is sold at a price which at least covers the excise duty element.A government source was quoted as saying: "It will have the effect of setting the lowest level at which different strengths of alcohol can be sold - by stopping the worst instances of deep discounting and preventing alcohol being sold both cheaply and harmfully."The average duty per unit of alcohol is 17p per beer, 18p for wine, 7p for cider and 24p for spirits, on top of which is valued added tax of 20p. The leaked proposals have met with scepticism from many quarters. Professor Ian Gilmore, a liver specialist and chairman of the Alcohol Health Alliance UK, said in a BBC interview that the government's proposal was "a step in the right direction" but added that, in his view, it was "an extremely small step."Conservative MP Andrew Griffiths, who is secretary of the cross-party parliamentary group for the misuse of drugs and alcohol, dismissed the initiative as a "pointless exercise" that would still enable supermarkets to "sell cans of strong lager cheaper than cans of Coca Cola".Brigit Simmonds, chief executive of the British Beer & Pub Association, suggested the move would stamp out the most extreme cases of below-cost selling but doubted whether it would have a significant effect on the sale of low-priced alcohol in supermarkets."With 70% of alcohol now sold in the off-trade, there is a real need for the government to do more to support the pub," Simmonds said. That was a view echoed by Jonathan Mail of pressure group the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA). "The decision means pubs will continue to close as they are undercut by supermarkets selling cans of beer at pocket-money prices. We think the ban will have negligible impact as supermarkets sell only a tiny minority of beer below duty plus VAT," Mail said, adding that the government's proposal was "a betrayal of the government's promise to ban below-cost alcohol sales."