Alcohol price rises 'are a blunt instrument'

Alan Sillett from the Guernsey Hospitality Association said the hospitality industry had already been "seriously damaged" in recent years

Raising the price of alcohol through duties is a "lazy, blunt instrument" to tackle Guernsey's drinking culture and could hurt the hospitality sector, according to the head of a local industry group.

Alan Sillett, president of the Guernsey Hospitality Association (GHA), criticised the recommendations in a recent Public Health Services (PHS) report.

Mr Sillett said the industry had already been "seriously damaged" over recent years, with alcohol duty rising more than 320% in the last 10 years, compared to 12% in the UK.

He said the industry was under pressure because of "all sorts of hikes in inflation, energy bills, food inflation, drink inflation" and called on the States to "put a stop to these rises for the next two or three years just to help the industry survive".

Unhealthy drinking education

Mr Sillett said Guernsey had to "remain competitive" as a tourism destination.

He said: "We get comments from not just local people that prices for drinks are high, but also from our visitors."

Mr Sillett called for more education on the dangers of unhealthy drinking.

He said: "Maybe Public Health could introduce more awareness, more education that would have a have a greater effect - like drink-free days.

"It's been proved that raising alcohol duty in the UK and in Jersey... had no effect on the level of consumption.

"It just moves it around, takes it into the supermarkets and into the home."

Bar owner Simon Allen agreed that Guernsey had a drinking culture like the UK

Simon Allen, who runs Pingquays bar in St Peter Port, agreed that Guernsey had a drinking culture like the UK, but felt education would be more successful than price rises.

He said: "There is a lot of money on the islands, a lot of well-paid people.

"You see behaviour from very wealthy people, as you see it from very young people."

"If you want people to stop driving fast, you don't put petrol up."

Mr Allen said: "It's purely an education thing. We need to look at the grassroots of things, getting to primary school level, even."

Minimum unit pricing

PHS said Guernsey and Alderney's cultures "normalises" regular drinking, with a "substantial number of adults consuming alcohol at levels which put their health at risk".

Dr Nicola Brink MBE, the States' Director of Public Health, said alcohol-related deaths were Guernsey's third-highest cause of death, with 173 people dying a year.

Dr Brink also said PHS would look at price controls as an option to tackle the problem including "minimum unit pricing and excise duties".

Harmful use of alcohol was "far more common than that of drugs and tobacco" according to the report, which was published in partnership with the Health Improvement Commission.