Lord Brooke: We must empower local communities to tackle harmful drinking

4 min read21 January 2020

A grown-up, joined-up approach to alcohol harms could strengthen the health of our nation, reducing health inequalities and supporting healthier and happier lives, writes Lord Brooke.

Almost all of us know someone who has been affected by harmful drinking. But such is the stigma attached to the issue that we may not be aware of it.

Our culture celebrates the sharing of alcohol, but we leave individuals and families to pick up the pieces behind closed doors. Across society as a whole the costs of alcohol harm are significant: every day in England, 68 people die from alcohol-related causes. Alcohol is now the leading risk factor for death, ill-health, and disability for 15-49 year-olds and is associated with around 40% of violent crime.

Alcohol harms are rising, according to the Government’s own assessment, and the burden of those harms falls most heavily on poorer communities. Dare I say that this is an area that fits closely with the Government’s stated aims of ‘levelling-up’ and reducing inequalities.

Here at Westminster, an ambitious, integrated alcohol strategy unveiled in 2012 was watered down so often to meet the demands of the vociferous alcohol industry lobby so as to be rendered ineffective. And other decisions have had a devastating effect.

Research into the impact of the changes in alcohol duty since 2012 suggests that, in England alone, the decision to end the alcohol duty escalator early and to make real-term cuts in alcohol duty have led to around 2,000 additional deaths, 61,000 additional hospitalisations and over 100,000 additional alcohol-related crimes. As a result of the cuts and freezes, the Exchequer is losing out on £1.2 billion of revenue each year, while cuts at local level mean that four in five drinkers with dependence do not receive the support that could help them to rebuild their lives.

I am calling on the Chancellor to raise duty by 2% above inflation each year, starting with his Budget on 11 March, and to plough the resources raised into improving support to harmful drinkers and their families. Such a move is predicted to save 4,710 lives and prevent 263,000 crimes in England by 2032.

If we are to make a real impact, we will need to go further.

Alcohol harms have implications across several Whitehall departments - which could explain why they have been so often neglected. That is why I am serving on Baroness Finlay’s Commission on alcohol harms, which seeks to examine the current evidence and recent trends in, and the changes needed to reduce, harm.

The good news is that policies exist that could have a profound effect on reducing harms, given the political will. Progress is being made in Scotland and Wales, where policies proposed in the 2012 UK alcohol strategy, such as minimum unit pricing, are being implemented.

Following Brexit, there is the opportunity to introduce a more coherent structure for duty, including scaled volumetric taxation so that stronger drinks causing greater harms always cost more.

We should give local authorities greater control over the number of alcohol outlets and their opening hours, with the power to consider the impact on public health. And we should redress the balance in marketing, so that consumers have adequate information on product labels about what they are consuming, just as they do with other foodstuffs, and are not bombarded with intrusive ads online, where protection is currently lagging far behind business practice.

A grown-up, joined-up approach to alcohol harms is needed. It must be more open about the effects of alcohol on communities, and it must empower those communities to take action. This could strengthen the health of our nation, reducing health inequalities and supporting healthier and happier lives. I look forward to working with colleagues from all parties and none to make it happen.

Lord Brooke is a Labour Member of the House of Lords.

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