'We'll water down your beer': Tory's plan to cut binge drinking

A billion units of alcohol could be drained from Britain’s booze stocks in a bid to tackle binge drinking

A billion units of alcohol could be drained from Britain’s booze stocks in a bid to tackle binge drinking.

That is the figure Health Secretary Andrew Lansley is expected to set in the Government’s new alcohol strategy, to be unveiled in the next few weeks.

And he wants the drinks industry to volunteer to hit the target by watering down top- selling beers, lagers and spirits to weaken them, industry bible The Grocer claims.

“The Government wants a headline figure it can promote,” said an industry insider.

A billion alcohol units is equivalent to 333 million pints of beer or 111 million bottles of wine. An estimated 66 billion units are drunk in the UK each year.

Other tactics being considered are higher taxation on stronger drinks and a minimum price for booze.

The strategy has moved up the Government’s agenda amid rising concern about alcohol abuse, said to cost the economy £20billion a year through crime and health risks.

Figures show drinkers treated in hospital have doubled in 10 years.

Several big brewers such as Budweiser, Stella Artois and Beck’s are already reducing alcohol in lagers by about 0.2 per cent from five per cent.

One unit is measured as 10ml – a single measure of whisky, a third of a pint of beer or half a standard glass of red wine.

The strategy comes after ministers announced plans to tackle rising obesity levels by cutting five billion calories from the UK’s daily food intake.

But there are fears it will be hard to persuade all firms to cut products’ strengths without regulation.

A source told The Grocer: “Retailers are going to face massive challenges and one or two of the big ones are at the point of walking away and saying, ‘Go on, just legislate’.”