UPDATED: The UK Chancellor Rachel Reeves this week gave respite from years of real terms alcohol tax cuts in her Budget statement, but made little headway on delivering on a manifesto promise to prioritise the prevention of health problems.
“I will support the great British pub through our new national licensing framework, encouraging councils to back our pubs and back late night venues with greater freedoms,” Reeves said in her yearly financial statement on Wednesday.
Reeves was referring to a much-criticised plan to change local alcohol licensing law to allow councils to put economic growth over health criteria. The government seems to be rewriting its proposals following an outcry from public health.
Councils are still being asked to “view licensing as part of their economic development or regeneration functions” , but other controversial aspects of the proposals have been “watered down or dropped”, posted James Nicholls, a critic of the proposals.
Reeves also said alcohol tax would remain the same in real terms next year. Health advocates recommend that the tax would need to rise in real terms to reduce record levels of harm.
But health advocates see this year’s tax freeze as relatively good news after years of real-terms tax cuts. “It is a clear signal that ministers aren’t bowing to a barrage of misinformation and aggressive lobbying,” said Katherine Severi of the Institute Of Alcohol Studies.
The Alcohol Health Alliance UK also welcomed the freeze, but it also repeated its call for a sustained increase of 2% above inflation and to develop an alcohol strategy.
It is a “welcome step forward”, said Alcohol Change UK, but added that it “expected bolder action” while also raising concerns about licensing reform, especially on alcohol delivery. ■