Minimum unit pricing on alcohol could save lives
3 min read
Not someone I often find myself agreeing with, but Milton Friedman wasn’t wrong when he said: “Only a crisis – actual or perceived – produces real change. When that crisis occurs, the actions that are taken depend on the ideas that are lying around.”
With deaths from alcohol consumption hitting record highs every year since 2020, it’s hard to argue that we aren’t in a crisis. With crises dominating headlines, there’s a real danger that even preventable deaths become normalised. But 25,000 deaths a year at a societal cost of £27bn should never be accepted as normal.
So, to Friedman’s point, what ideas are ‘lying around’? There is impressive agreement within the public health community about what should be done to reduce alcohol-related harm, with the most effective and cost-effective approach being to tackle the increasing affordability of alcohol through minimum unit pricing (MUP) and excise duties.
No single policy will be enough to substantially bring down alcohol deaths
Alcohol has become 91 per cent more affordable since 1987 relative to incomes, with a particular rise in affordability over the past decade due to successive Conservative governments handing out tax breaks to alcohol producers.
MUP would be the most efficient way to reduce alcohol harm in England in the shortest time. And with England driving most of the increase in alcohol deaths in 2023, the sooner it is introduced, the sooner lives are saved. In Scotland, the policy has reduced expected deaths by over 13 per cent, with the greatest reductions seen in people living in the most deprived 40 per cent of the country, making it an important lever to pull to tackle inequalities.
The policy would also help pubs compete with supermarkets. In recent years there has been a huge shift from people drinking in local pubs to drinking at home. Publicans have made it clear that one of the biggest risks to their establishments staying open is cheap, supermarket alcohol. MUP targets the cheapest and most damaging products, like strong, white ciders, whereas pub alcohol is barely affected, if at all. There is a clear win-win here of supporting our pubs while improving the health of our nation. Public polling also consistently shows strong public support for policies tackling cheap alcohol.
The beauty of being a step behind Scotland in implementing MUP is that we can improve the policy. One of the main criticisms has been that it does nothing to support dependent drinkers, some of whom have experienced increased financial strain in order to keep buying the same amount of alcohol. This is where it is vital that our treatment services are properly funded, and the many services that people with alcohol problems come into contact with are integrated and speak to one another, as the Medical Council on Alcohol recently called for.
However, many of the criticisms of the policy have been misinformed and politically motivated, or pushed by organisations with a vested interest.
But crucially, no single policy will be enough to substantially bring down alcohol deaths. A national alcohol strategy – that also tackles aggressive industry marketing, introduces mandatory health warnings on product labels, and reduces the unnecessarily high availability of alcohol – should be implemented by this government.
If we can emulate and improve on the success that New Labour had in reducing alcohol deaths, not only will we have tangible public health success to point towards at elections but, far more importantly, we can turn the tide on so many unnecessary deaths.
Cat Smith, Labour MP for Lancaster and Wyre
