Get ready for an influx....

[PD]

Of new members to the forum, perhaps.

Today is the day Ministers announce a new plan for the minimum pricing for alcohol... Its suggested that a can of beer will rise to at least £1 12p and say a bottle of Vodka from £9 to £13.13p.

Perhaps next year they will be taxing Malts and Yeasts ??

 

[graysalchemy]

SHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH


They are watching.

:nono: :nono:

 

[calumscott]

The commercial craft brewers have to be secretly pleased by this don't they?

They're stuck in the awkward position of having to sell their beer at the lowest margin they possibly can (with all the detriment that brings - less cash for R&D, less cash for expansion etc) to have a chance of catching the eye on the supermarket shelf against the mega-corps cheap well-marketed wash.

This surely must help close the gap? Make the price differential between wash and beer less so more people might "jump the gap"?

Has anyone seen or heard any interviews with the craft operations on the subject? (I think the brewdog guys came out in favour on their blog a while ago...)

EDIT: Yup! http://www.brewdog.com/blog-article/bre ... um-pricing

 

[kentmark]

LOL, heard this on the radio this morning. My first response? Gits! That won't solve binge drinking. Second response? Time to up the home brew production!!

 

[Frogfurlong]

The Home Office have just confirmed that they will consult on a minimum price per unit of alcohol of 45p

Just popped onto my Twitter feed

 

[Jeltz]

Ahh well my favourite blended whisky is Lidl's Queen Margot so I guess that will be heading up in price, but since I started brewing I don't often drink shots so I might just stick with malts.

Charging duty on barley or wheat wouldn't be viable, maybe hops and certain strains of yeast would be but the cost of collection would outweigh the income.

I agree that its more likely to increase the popularity of home brewing, especially TC's and carton juice wines!

 

[PD]

quote Jeltz
especially TC's and carton juice wines!


why does the phrase " Inmate booze " spring to mind

 

[Gayle]

I don't think minimum pricing will help. As with all commercial products, the price only affects people who are on lower incomes - if you're rich you can drink yourself into oblivion as much as you like. If you have to budget all your wages, you will probably still drink around the same amount but pay more for it, just because there are people out there who can't control their drinking - and if people can't control their drinking habits then the price won't put them off either. I have two friends, both who receive top-rate DLA for being alcoholics (and two more for wanting too many drugs while we're at it, but thats OT probably) and have both said they'd probably make an effort to cut down their drinking if they didn't have so much "free money" to spend on it. They're alcoholics, and food and housing costs come further down the list of necessities than drink.

When I was a teenager, money was one of those things that I didn't think much of - I got it, I spent it, and it didn't matter how much something was. I didn't have other necessary things to spend money on so if alcohol was very expensive it probably wouldn't have crossed my mind that it was too dear, just that I might have to stop eating lunch at school or something Maybe if a person is older and more mature and has other things to think about, they'll think twice about getting blocked every weekend if the extra cost is an issue, but it always seems that it's those people who are penalised for their rational thinking, rather than the people who don't care one way or the other about their health or finances.

Perhaps it might work better too if Debt wasn't so easily to get a hold of right now. If you've not enough money right now for your drink well then you can just go to one of those awful loan-shark-internet people and have money in 15 minutes, therefore keeping you as drunk as you like, getting you deeper into debt and putting that extra money into someone else's pocket, yet again. Thanks, British Goverment, you're just a Well of Brilliant Ideas.

Also, just to check, who gets this extra money? The alcohol producers, the retailers, or the goverment? If it is the producers then I'm not thrilled about the idea of a commercial company directly gaining from a new law on minimum pricing, ditto the retailers. The only positive thing I could think of from this is that the government could use the extra income from booze to actually provide education on alcohol and help in managaing themselves. I guess what I'm trying to say is that it is society that has to change, not the price of alcohol - because that is not a fair method of dealing with it and won't solve the problem.

Anyway, why am I rambling about this I only buy Buckfast now as a treat and even if the bottle was £20 I probably still would. So long as my cider production is never ending

 

[artyb]

yet more taxation ...?

 

[calumscott]

Hmmm...

...now I'm puzzled.

I've just been looking at the beer on tesco.com and... The cheapest stuff is all priced round about what the new proposed minimum price is.

e.g.

Carlsberg special brew = 7.06 for 4. £1.77 a tin. Proposed minimum price? £1.78 a tin.
Holsten Pils = 3.69 for 4. 92p a tin. Proposed minimum price? 99p a tin.

So who is it that's actually selling the supercheap, superstrong stuff that's actually going to be caught by the minimum price??? Surely the point of a minimum price is to actually have some effect rather than none at all???

Ho hum...

 

[happyhiker]

Perhaps they should try putting a minimum price on fast food, there are a lot more people with a weight problem than there are with a drink problem.

Its just another excuse to tax an already over taxed nation. How will it work with E.U laws on fair trade and price fixing????? and do I have a human right to drink cheep beer LOL.

Don't think it will make much difference to me as most cheep booze tends to taste pants anyway, I have not seen any real ale on sale for less than 45p per pint.

 

[calumscott]

45p per pint.

45p a unit! Making a pint of 5% beer at at least £1.27.

 

[Frogfurlong]

Units of alcohol
Bottle (75cl) of wine - 10 units
Small (125ml) glass of wine - 1.5 units
Standard (175ml) glass of wine - 2.1 units
Large (250ml) glass of wine - 3 units
Pint of weaker (3.6%) beer - 2 units
Pint of stronger (5.2%) beer - 3 units
Bottle (330ml) of beer - 1.7 units
Can (440ml) of beer - 2 units
Alcopop bottle (275ml) - 1.5 units
Small (25ml) shot of spirits - 1 unit
Large (35ml) shot of spirits - 1.4 unitsLink

It still hasn't been made clear as to who will be receiving the extra revenue.

Another thought, by incresing the amount payed per unit will increase total taxable amount. "Tell them its for the good of their health as we raid their wallets" Backdoor tax rises are still tax rises.

 

[happyhiker]

Sorry, my mistake

If beer at over 45p per unit will not be taxed but say, beer sold at 43p will get 2p tax in order to make it 45p per unit then the likes of Tesco and Asda will just put the price up to 45p, pay not tax and pocket the extra cash (and lets face it, its not like they make large profits LOL)

The supermarkets will still demand to buy the beer at the same price me thinks.

I am sure that this price fixing is unlawful, as the farmers tried to get a minimum price for milk and were told even talking about fixing the price was unlawful. For E.U law, read - make it up as you go a long.

 

[calumscott]

The duty has to be paid on sold beer, regardless of the price it's sold for so there would be no revenue increase there.

The only way, without introducing a new tax or an amendment to the duty rates (and there are lots of them) to bump up the tax, it just doesn't stack up.

The only extra revenue the exchequer gets is the additional VAT on the difference between current price and minimum price. So 20% of the hike effectively. Which, after a very quick glance at tesco's website, doesn't amount to a whole hill of beans.

 

[31bb3]

Just another ploy to tax the working man/ woman put fuel up not stopped cars on the road put tobacco up not stopped people smoking might help if the supermarket chains were not in the governments back pocket all it's going to create is more illegal alcohol production by certain ways not discussed on here then sold on to some naive teenager

 

[critch]

its not a tax rise its a minimum pricing scheme

money goes to the retailer not producer or gubbermint

itll not effect me or what i drink one iota, cos everything i drink has a higher retail price than 45p a unit!

itll hurt supermarkets 'cos they wont be able to do bogof deals on cases of stella and bud anymore

so to get round it theyll say by two cases of stella full price and well knock x amount off your food shopping......

 

[Frogfurlong]

:rofl:

 

[kentmark]

Something that I don't think has been clarified though, or I've missed totally.

It may be a minimum per unit price. However, does this mean that actually the manufacturer/reseller will put their markup on top of this?

At the moment a bottle of beer (ales etc) is £1.99 or thereabouts in Tesco. If they are per unit this would mean they are about the right price already. However, the cynic in me thinks we will see a price rise on these as well?

 

[calumscott]

That would be profiteering...

...and unless it was done by collusion of the retailers then the market wouldn't support it.

They've got bigger fish to fry than trying to fix the price of all their drink, particularly as they have rigged the prices of most fresh produce already so can't compete on that. They'll still compete on drink, they'll just compete by bringing so called "middle market" branded mass produced wash down to minimum price.