Responding to the announcements made on alcohol in the
Budget today, Professor Sir Ian Gilmore, Chair of the Alcohol
Health Alliance, said:
‘Today’s budget represents a huge missed opportunity for the
Government to tackle alcohol harm and protect our most
vulnerable.
‘The freezes on alcohol duty the Chancellor has announced
represent a real terms cut in duty, and a £1.2 billion tax
giveaway to an alcohol industry which has already benefitted from
successive duty cuts in previous budgets.
‘The planned increase in duty on some high-strength ciders
appears like a small step in the right direction. However, in
reality it will have minimal impact. A three-litre bottle of
white cider at the newly proposed 6.8% ABV strength will contain
more than 20 units of alcohol yet could still be sold for £3.50.
This will do very little to protect dependent drinkers and
children that consume these damaging products.
‘Furthermore, this measure will not come into effect until
2019 and in the meantime the price of high strength cider will
fall because of today’s duty freeze.
‘This strengthens the case for minimum unit pricing of
alcohol. With minimum pricing now judged to be
legal by the Supreme Court and Scotland and Wales moving to
implement the measure, it is important that England does not get
left behind in terms of reducing alcohol-related harm.’
