Making alcohol cheaper is no way to help vulnerable people

What on earth is going on with the UK government and alcohol?

- BARONESS HAYTER

So far this year, in 68 responses to written parliamentary questions, the government has stated that among other things people are being supported during the cost of living crisis by alcohol duties being frozen. Not only is this shortsighted and symptomatic of the short-termism of public office but it also highlights the lack of a plan to genuinely support people, as well as the control alcohol, holds over our politics and economics.

Alcohol duty is supposed to increase each year in line with the Retail Price Index. Instead, over the last 10 years, it has either been frozen or cut, apart from in 2017-18. This means that it has become increasingly affordable. For instance, in real terms, beer duty is 28 per cent lower this year than it was in 2012. Wine duty is 13 per cent lower.

This matters because when alcohol is more affordable it increases the rates of alcohol-related harm. Reducing its affordability is one of the main mechanisms to reduce harmful consumption, as the World Health Organisation, public health advocates, and colleagues of mine in the House of Lords have said for years.

In then swept Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng in September with their mini-Budget”, announcing that alcohol duties will be frozen again from February 2023. We know what then happened, fast forward to now and almost everything in the mini-Budget has been reversed including the freezing of alcohol duty.