Alcohol Concern: Supermarkets have won the day

Charity Alcohol Concern’s chief executive Don Shenker responds to the government’s proposals for a duty-and VAT-based alcohol minimum price:

“Government’s plans to introduce a ban on selling alcohol below the cost of duty and VAT will hardly touch the sides in dealing with binge-drinking and alcohol-related harms.

“The price of the vast majority of drinks won’t be affected by this and the threshold is not high enough to deter those who use cheap drinks to get drunk.

“There would need to be a minimum price of at least 40 pence per unit to see a drop in alcohol-related crime, health harms and deaths. Once again the supermarkets have won the day.”