Is alcohol too expensive?

To say, “Work was the curse of the drinking class”, may have been seen as an offhand witticism in the days of old; nowadays, it’s not such a wild statement.  

The price of alcohol has increased far above the rate of inflation over the years. In 1987, an average pint of draught lager would have set you back a breezy 92p (£3.31 in today’s money). Now, you would have to fork over a sobering £4.82. And as one imbibes, the number of pints bought naturally increases, with the chance of having ‘just one more pint’ increasing exponentially the more plastered you get, leading to a morning with a painful headache and an even more painful number staring at you from your bank account. Comparatively, a pint of lager from an off-trade retailer (buying booze from the shops) costs only £1.51, incentivising people to ditch the pub for drinking cheaper elsewhere. How did we get here? Is this bad? And do we need pubs anyway? 

Alcohol costs the NHS an estimated £3.5 billion per year in England

This situation arose from two forces: corporate greed and government taxation, which coincided with the idea that alcohol should be more expensive. Profit for the former, and a double whammy of attempting to curb alcoholism, more specifically the resultant deaths from which, whilst raising revenue from the national pastime of drinking. There is a long and varied history of anti-alcohol causes within politics that is too long and varied to comment upon in full. In short, the discourse in Parliament on alcohol ran the gamut between politically polemic and plainly pejorative. However, that doesn’t mean that those who disapprove of alcohol are without mandate on the subject. The government states, “Alcohol costs the NHS an estimated £3.5 billion per year in England.” This, along with an estimated £21 billion cost on society, demonstrates a significant financial burden on the taxpayer caused by the nation’s whistle-wetting. As for corporate greed, even if you take away the costs of tax, the price increases above the rate of inflation, allowing companies to make more money. 

Alcohol is harmful to society in any way that one paints it. It causes death both slowly (liver cirrhosis) and quickly (head-on vehicular collision); it is associated with 4 million crimes a year, from violence outside of pubs to domestic homicide; and it causes terrible hangovers in the morning, which in turn leads to sick days, causing loss of productivity among the population.

Increasing the duty on alcohol has been shown to directly combat deaths related to consumption. In 2017, Lithuania doubled their duty rates on alcohol, and the Institute of Alcohol Studies estimates that the “change avoided 1,452 deaths in the year following implementation of the policy”. Clearly, there is evidence to support the notion that higher alcohol prices, for the benefit of the nation, save lives. 

Over the last 40 years, the country has lost approximately 20,000 pubs

However, the British pub is a cultural staple for many. For communities, the pub served as their hub for discussion, relaxation, various clubs, and, notably, a place to enjoy a few drinks. In WW2, when American GIs were stationed in southern England in anticipation of D-Day, a short instructional film titled A Welcome to Britain was made, which spent a significant amount of time explaining the British pub as an essential part of understanding British culture. In the years since then, the symbol of the pub has been in decline. Over the last 40 years, the country has lost approximately 20,000 pubs, representing a significant loss. The major reason for this is the rise in the operating costs of running a pub, and one thing that surely does not help this is the rise in duty costs on alcohol. Whilst this may not be pressing now, in forty years’ time, one must think about how we will lament the loss of the pub. 

Lowering the duty on alcohol in any way would be read as an endorsement of the substance and disregard for the sobering amount of harm caused to society by it. Increasing the duty, while reducing the amount people drink, would have a knock-on effect on the service industry, which in tourist areas makes up the majority of the local economy. So, whether you raise a glass of water to higher duty or toast to cheaper pints, the real headache isn’t tomorrow’s hangover – it’s how we balance health with heritage.