Chancellor Exchequer and last year’s “Beer Drinker of the
Year” - George Osborne faces pressure to “stand by the government’s commitment
to crack down on cheap drink” by maintaining the alcohol duty escalator in next
week’s budget.
The duty escalator has been in place since 2008 and its
purpose is to ensure that the price of alcohol rises 2% above inflation.
Last year, following numerous campaigns from the brewer
sector, George Osbourne rejected the planned 3p rise in beer duty and instead,
replaced it with a 1p cut in the price of a pint as well announcing that beer
would be exempt from duty increases – much to the delight of the beer industry.
This resulted in the industry-supported All-Party Parliamentary Beer
Group presenting the Chancellor with a trophy titled “Beer Drinker of the Year.”
In
accepting the award, George Osborne stated that it was a "symbol that
Parliament cares about this industry and Parliament cares about people employed
in this industry".
One year later however, Osbourne is
facing immense pressure to back the governments commitment to crack down on
cheap drink by maintaining the alcohol duty escalator.
Katherine Brown, director of the Institute of Alcohol Studies says the UK chancellor should not “succumb” to industry lobbying to scrap the annual rise in alcohol duty because "society simply can’t afford for such cheap drink to get cheaper.”
According to Ms Brown, Osbourne ‘giving in’ to the drinks industry could mean the treasury facing a cost of £110m in 2014/15.
"This sum could fund 2,587 alcohol nurses in emergency departments, 468,085 ambulance call-outs, or 723,684 days of inpatient detoxification services," Ms Brown wrote in the British Medical Journal (BMJ).
According to BMJ, each year the United Kingdom sees more than 8700 deaths related to alcohol and 1.2 million hospital admissions, and alcohol is estimated to cost society more than £21bn. These figures include costs to the NHS (£2.7bn), the police and criminal justice system (£11bn), and loss of workplace productivity (£7.3bn), and they total more than double the £10bn annual revenue generated from taxes on alcohol.
The question remains, does reducing the affordability of alcohol reduce the problems associated with it?
The question remains, does reducing the affordability of alcohol reduce the problems associated with it?
The Wine and Spirits Trade Association, the Scotch Whisky Trade Association, and the Taxpayers Alliance are currently leading a campaign calling on the Chancellor to “Be Fair George!” and scrap the duty escalator for all alcohol in this year’s budget.
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