Doctors are urging Philip Hammond to raise the price of alcohol to tackle the “scourge” of drink-related harm after it emerged that crime, ill health and lost productivity cost up to £52bn a year, far more than previously thought.



They want the chancellor to increase the price of cheap, potent drinks such as high-strength white cider, which are mainly consumed by heavy drinkers, homeless people and underage drinkers.

Forty-three doctors, medical groups, campaigners, and public health, religious and children’s organisations have written to Hammond asking him to use his first budget in spring 2017 to increase the duty on certain alcohol products.

“Targeted pricing policies such as minimum unit pricing [MUP] and tax increases on the cheapest high-strength drinks would reduce the amount of alcohol-related death and disease in our country, and would place alcoholic products out of the financial reach of children,” said the signatories, which include many medical royal colleges, cancer charities and the Salvation Army.

The plea comes after a government-commissioned review of the evidence of alcohol-related harm and what to do about it recommended that ministers abandon their opposition to MUP and start planning to implement it.

The review was undertaken by Public Health England (PHE) and leading academic and medical experts on alcohol. It found that the true cost of alcohol-related harm, which had usually been cited as £21bn a year across the UK, has been “generally underestimated”.

The overall economic burden is due to be between £27bn and £52bn in 2016 (1.3%-2.7% of GDP), the researchers said.

Prof Ian Gilmore, the chair of the Alcohol Health Alliance, said: “Ordinary drinkers will not be penalised. MUP will leave pub prices untouched and tax on the cheapest, strongest drinks will be targeted at those drinks that are preferentially consumed by harmful and dependent drinkers.”

Jeremy Swain, the chief executive of London-based homelessness charity Thames Reach, said: “Among the homeless people we work with, our figures indicate that super-strength beers and ciders at 7.5% to 9% ABV [alcohol by volume] are doing more damage than both heroin and crack cocaine.”

In 2012, the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government pledged to bring in MUP, but then decided against it in July 2013, which led health bodies to accuse David Cameron’s administration of giving in to alcohol industry lobbying.

On Friday, the Treasury said the possibility of the policy being introduced in England and Wales remained under review and it would consider carefully the evidence collected by PHE.

A Treasury spokesman said: “While no one would want to interfere with the right of adults to enjoy a drink responsibly, PHE’s report shows clearly that the abuse of alcohol can cause significant health problems.

“The independent UK chief medical officers recently released new guidance on the risk alcohol can pose so people can make informed choices.”

Henry Ashworth, the chief executive of drinks industry body Portman Group, said PHE’s 241-page report “does not contain any new policy ideas, nor does it fully reflect the significant declines in harmful drinking in the last decade. Alcohol policy is on the right track and is consistent and proportionate”.