The Drink Problem - Part 2 Pricing and The Law

The chains of alcohol are too light to be felt until they are too strong to be broken

The Drink Problem

Part 2 - Pricing and The Law

So in this post Im gonna explore the problem around the pricing of drink and the licensing law.

Lets start of with pricing, its no secret that drink is so readily and cheaply available, with even the most struggling of pockets able to afford supermarkets own equivalent of alcohol.  Not to mention regular drink offers.  Lets do an example shop, Im going to visit the online stores of Asda, Tesco, Sainsburys and Morrisons and see just how well I can do on Lager for £20, below are the results, correct as of Thursday 27/08/2015.

Asda - 40 cans of Carling for £20.00 - 50p per can which is 1.8 units of Alcohol

Sainsburys - 45 cans of Carling for £24.00 - About 54p per can which is 1.8 units of Alcohol

Tesco - 30 cans of Carling for £20 - About 66p per can which is 1.8 units of Alcohol

Morrisons - 40 cans of Carlsberg for £20 - 50p per can which is 1.8 units of Alcohol

The above is just an example using what I used to drink, but all the above also do cheap bulk offers regularly on all drinks. 

Now to look at the licensing law.  

The Licensing Act 2003 (c 17) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The Act establishes a single integrated scheme for licensing premises which are used for the sale or supply of alcohol, to provide regulated entertainment, or to provide late night refreshment. Permission to carry on some or all of these licensable activities will now be contained in a single licence — the premises licence — replacing several different and complex schemes. Responsibility for issuing licences now rests with local authorities, specifically London boroughs, Metropolitan boroughs, unitary authorities, and district councils, who take over this power from the Justices of the Peace. These authorities are each required to establish a Licensing Committee, which is to act in a quasi-judicial capacity under the Act. The powers of the Act came fully into force at midnight at the start of 24 November 2005.

Key measures contained in the Act include:

• Flexible opening hours, flexible opening hours for licensed premises, with the potential for up to 24 hour opening, seven days a week, will now be available. As well as the flexibility, the granting of these new type of licences is to be, for the first time, subject to consideration of the impact on local residents, businesses, and the expert opinion of a range of authorities in relation to the licensing objectives. This flexibility is intended to minimise public disorder resulting from standard closing times whereby many intoxicated individuals are all ejected onto the streets at once come 23:00, as well as encouraging less of a binge-drinking culture.

• Single premises licences the single integrated premises licence, bringing together the six existing licensing regimes (for alcohol, public entertainment, cinemas, theatres, late night refreshment houses, and night cafés) with the intention of cutting down on bureaucracy and simplifying such provision.

• Personal licences a new system of personal licences relating to the supply of alcohol is to be brought in. This will enable holders to move more freely between premises where a premises licence is in force than is currently the case.

So as a result of the above we now find in 2015 that most standard pubs open until anywhere between 23:00 and 01:00 during the week and maybe as late as 02:00 at the weekend.  Night clubs now open until anywhere between 03:00 - 07:00 normally only at weekends, and clubs will normally close between 01:00-03:00 during the week.

Not to mention convince stores and petrol stations etc which will sell Alcohol 24 hours a day, as well as a new craze of 24 hour beer delivery to your house.....such as http://www.24houralcohol.co.uk/london-alcohol-delivery

So this is it for todays post, take care, watch this space for further posts.

- The first step towards getting somewhere is to decide that you are not going to stay where you are