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PUBS are facing a rocky road whilst the chancellor's assault on alcohol will not tackle the problems of binge drinking, according to both industry insiders and those dealing with the aftermath of alcohol abuse.

In his first budget speech Alistair Darling announced increases of 4p on a pint of beer, 14p on a bottle of wine and 55p on bottles of spirits as well as a rise on excise duty of 6 per cent above the level of inflation - the biggest monetary rise since the 1970s.

But far from tackling the huge social and health problems being caused by binge drinking, especially amongst young people, it is feared the only thing to be hit by the rises will be pub business.

Richard Brady, landlord of Finn M'Coul's in Ringwood, said: "People have the same amount of money to spend if the price goes up so they just drink less. Pubs have been closing all over the country and, with the smoking ban, this will make it worse.

"I think they are going about it the wrong way. A pub is a controlled environment and young people who want to get drunk don't go and buy pints of Ringwood Best Bitter.

An 18-year-old can go into a supermarket, buy 20 cans of strong lager at 50p each then they can go down the park and sell it to 16-year-olds for £1 a can.

"An average bloke who has a couple of pints then goes home is the one who will be hit by this."

Nigel Welsh, brewery manager at the Ringwood Brewery said: "I think it is disgraceful. This isn't going to stop binge drinking, the only thing that is going to do that is slapping a £1,000 fine on bad behaviour. All that is going to happen is that supermarkets are going to sell more alcohol."

A 'binge for the price of a sandwich'

Ringwood-based charity the British Liver Trust has added its voice to the calls for tougher measures on cut price alcohol in the shops.

The charity recently undertook a survey in the town and found a unit of alcohol could be bought for as little as 15.8p a unit, meaning the cost of a binge-drinking session of six units for women, eight for men, could be less than the cost of a sandwich.

A report produced by the charity said: "No-one needs to buy alcohol at 15.8p per unit, and the ability for individuals to be able to do so is sending out a statement which has significant repercussions for us all. As a society we should send some signals about the acceptability of consuming excessive quantities of booze. Surely raising the price to a minimum cost per unit of alcohol - and making sure that that minimum cost is not eroded over time by inflation, by index-linking it - would be a sensible way forward."

7:47am Thursday 20th March 2008

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