Photograph by
Michael Fajardo
The government is to ban the sale of super cheap alcohol in England and Wales.
Alcohol sold at “below cost”, defined as duty plus VAT, will be banned, meaning that a 440ml can of lager cannot be sold below 50p, and a bottle of wine cannot be sold for less than £2.24 once the new regulations come into force on 6th April. A full-size bottle of spirits will have a minimum price of £10.16.
Duty-free sales will be exempt from the new rules, as will low-strength beers with an alcoholic content of 1.2%.
The government are attempting to target the growing trend of “pre-loading”, where people get drunk on cheap supermarket-bought alcohol at home before going out.
However, healthcare workers have warned that the new rules will have a negligible impact on the heavy drinking culture, and the government admits that the new rules will impact just 1.3% of alcohol sales, mostly at supermarkets.
The new rules follow similar minimum price regulations introduced in Scotland under the Alcohol (Minimum Pricing) Scotland Act 2012.
