A minimum price should be introduced for alcohol and the UK Government should consider a ban on alcohol advertising, health experts said yesterday.
The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice) issued new guidance calling for a crackdown on cheap alcohol.
It stopped short of saying what the minimum price should be, although the Faculty of Public Health and the British Medical Association are among those backing a 50p per unit minimum.
North of the border the Scottish Government wants to set a minimum price per unit as part of its Alcohol Bill.
Last month, Tesco chief Sir Terry Leahy said he was in favour of a minimum price, adding that binge drinking was one of the most serious issues facing the country.
The coalition government at Westminster has said supermarkets and off-licences will be banned from selling alcohol below cost price. Stores will be blocked from using alcohol as a “loss leader” as ministers try to cut crime and health problems linked to binge drinking.
Yesterday’s guidance, for England, recommends a raft of measures, including making alcohol less easy to buy. This could include cutting how much holidaymakers are allowed to bring home from abroad, and reducing the number of shops selling alcohol as well as the days and hours it can be bought.
Councils should look at how many shops are already selling drink in an area to check if a place is “saturated” before granting new licences. They must also take into account the potential impact on crime rates, public disorder and alcohol-related deaths.
Shops selling to those who are under age or clearly drunk should face penalties or closure. And advertising rules must be strengthened to minimise young people’s exposure to adverts that promote alcohol.
Introducing a 50p minimum would mean a bottle of wine would cost at least £4.50, a pint of 4% alcohol beer would cost £1.14 and a 10-pack would cost about £10. A two-litre bottle of cider would cost a minimum of about £7.50.
Professor Mike Kelly, Nice’s public health director, said such a move would “not penalise” trade drinking or pubs.
Professor Anne Ludbrook, from Aberdeen University, said work carried out by Sheffield University for the guidance had not specifically looked at below-cost selling in supermarkets.
“The problem of below-cost selling is what does it mean?,” she said. You have to have a definition. Some alcohol could remain quite cheap under a below-cost selling approach. It will go some way to reducing some of the problems but it would not actually put in a floor price that minimum pricing would do.”