32 min
Alcohol Alert – March 2021 Alcohol Alert Podcast
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- News Commentary
Hello and welcome to the Alcohol Alert, brought to you by The Institute of Alcohol Studies.
In this edition:
* Chancellor announces a blanket freeze on alcohol duties for a second consecutive year in the spring Budget 🎵 Podcast feature 🎵
* Irish data highlights ways in which the pandemic has slowed progress in tackling alcohol misuse
* Research finds association between alcohol-related violence and deprivation, amplified by the availability of alcohol 🎵 Podcast feature 🎵
* Doctors in Scotland urge ministers to break sponsorship link between alcohol and sport
We hope you enjoy our roundup of stories below: please feel free to share. Thank you.
Budget 2021: Duties for alcohol kept on ice
🎵 Podcast feature 🎵
All alcohol duties were frozen for the second year in a row in the 2021 Budget, marking the eighth year out of the last nine that alcohol duties have failed to keep up with inflation (03 Mar).
According to the Office for Budget Responsibility’s costings, the freeze in alcohol duties – a cut, in real terms – are estimated to cost roughly £1·7bn to the year 2025/26.
Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak's statement came ahead of the government's much anticipated response to the alcohol duty review consultation held late last year.
Responding to the announcement, IAS Chief Executive Katherine Severi said:
It is disappointing that the Chancellor has chosen to freeze alcohol duty today, which represents a cut in real terms. This will do nothing to help the thousands of families across the country whose lives are blighted by alcohol, an issue which has become even more acute during the pandemic.
We need to rethink how alcohol is taxed to ensure public health is always given priority over alcohol industry profits. Raising alcohol duty can generate vital public funds to support the NHS and social care services and the public are largely supportive of this policy.
The ongoing alcohol duty review is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to improve a broken system which promotes cheap, strong alcohol that wrecks lives and burdens our NHS and public services. We will continue to work with government to propose a fairer system that produces net gains for society, not just supermarket profits.
A good pandemic for HM Treasury?
One reason for Rishi Sunak’s decision to freeze all alcohol duties for another year may lie in the increased revenue from heavier drinking during the COVID-19 pandemic. According to the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), HM Treasury stand to rake in £800 million more than predicted for the financial year 2020/21. This makes alcohol duties ‘one of the few tax streams that has outperformed our pre-virus forecast’, as ‘higher sales in supermarkets and other shops have more than offset the loss in receipts from the closures of pubs and restaurants for large parts of the year’.
In an article for Alcohol Change UK, alcohol policy modeller Colin Angus suggested that ‘persistently freezing duties changes public perception, encouraging the idea that duty freezes for alcohol are the norm, making it politically more difficult for the Chancellor to increase duties in line with inflation in future years’. You can hear Colin Angus describe this issue in more detail on the podcast.
Despite a real terms cut in alcohol duties, some sectors of the industry were left dissatisfied by the Budget, with Society of Independent Brewers chief executive James Calder claiming that it ‘does nothing for independent breweries’ and others believing that approach to beer duty ‘could have been bolder’ (Morning Advertiser, 05 Mar).
Yet, this has still not stopped the ‘deluge’ of bookings made for when pubs reopen for outdoor service from 21 April (BBC News Business, 05 Mar), indicating that not only does a pent-up demand exist regardless of the Chancellor’s proclamations on duties, but also that businesses in the hospitality sector could have benefitted from fiscal measures m
Hello and welcome to the Alcohol Alert, brought to you by The Institute of Alcohol Studies.
In this edition:
* Chancellor announces a blanket freeze on alcohol duties for a second consecutive year in the spring Budget 🎵 Podcast feature 🎵
* Irish data highlights ways in which the pandemic has slowed progress in tackling alcohol misuse
* Research finds association between alcohol-related violence and deprivation, amplified by the availability of alcohol 🎵 Podcast feature 🎵
* Doctors in Scotland urge ministers to break sponsorship link between alcohol and sport
We hope you enjoy our roundup of stories below: please feel free to share. Thank you.
Budget 2021: Duties for alcohol kept on ice
🎵 Podcast feature 🎵
All alcohol duties were frozen for the second year in a row in the 2021 Budget, marking the eighth year out of the last nine that alcohol duties have failed to keep up with inflation (03 Mar).
According to the Office for Budget Responsibility’s costings, the freeze in alcohol duties – a cut, in real terms – are estimated to cost roughly £1·7bn to the year 2025/26.
Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak's statement came ahead of the government's much anticipated response to the alcohol duty review consultation held late last year.
Responding to the announcement, IAS Chief Executive Katherine Severi said:
It is disappointing that the Chancellor has chosen to freeze alcohol duty today, which represents a cut in real terms. This will do nothing to help the thousands of families across the country whose lives are blighted by alcohol, an issue which has become even more acute during the pandemic.
We need to rethink how alcohol is taxed to ensure public health is always given priority over alcohol industry profits. Raising alcohol duty can generate vital public funds to support the NHS and social care services and the public are largely supportive of this policy.
The ongoing alcohol duty review is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to improve a broken system which promotes cheap, strong alcohol that wrecks lives and burdens our NHS and public services. We will continue to work with government to propose a fairer system that produces net gains for society, not just supermarket profits.
A good pandemic for HM Treasury?
One reason for Rishi Sunak’s decision to freeze all alcohol duties for another year may lie in the increased revenue from heavier drinking during the COVID-19 pandemic. According to the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), HM Treasury stand to rake in £800 million more than predicted for the financial year 2020/21. This makes alcohol duties ‘one of the few tax streams that has outperformed our pre-virus forecast’, as ‘higher sales in supermarkets and other shops have more than offset the loss in receipts from the closures of pubs and restaurants for large parts of the year’.
In an article for Alcohol Change UK, alcohol policy modeller Colin Angus suggested that ‘persistently freezing duties changes public perception, encouraging the idea that duty freezes for alcohol are the norm, making it politically more difficult for the Chancellor to increase duties in line with inflation in future years’. You can hear Colin Angus describe this issue in more detail on the podcast.
Despite a real terms cut in alcohol duties, some sectors of the industry were left dissatisfied by the Budget, with Society of Independent Brewers chief executive James Calder claiming that it ‘does nothing for independent breweries’ and others believing that approach to beer duty ‘could have been bolder’ (Morning Advertiser, 05 Mar).
Yet, this has still not stopped the ‘deluge’ of bookings made for when pubs reopen for outdoor service from 21 April (BBC News Business, 05 Mar), indicating that not only does a pent-up demand exist regardless of the Chancellor’s proclamations on duties, but also that businesses in the hospitality sector could have benefitted from fiscal measures m
32 min