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Finance Bill

I thank the hon. Gentleman for that intervention. He makes the telling point that a well-supervised, well-staffed, professionally run licensed establishment will be able to look after such problems quite well. The real problems, of course, start to arise outside the establishment or later on, which is, again, something the industry has to consider. Contrary to popular perception, alcohol consumption is falling, and actually peaked a few years ago. The total amount of alcohol sold in the UK fell by 6 per cent. between 2004 and 2008. Consumption per head of pure alcohol per annum is down from a peak of about 9.5 litres in 2004 to about 8.7 litres today, although that is still above the figure of 7.5 litres for 1993. This is not to deny that there are problems in the UK with alcohol consumption, but it goes to show that the sands are shifting. This is not the occasion to digress into a full debate on the healthiness or otherwise of alcohol consumption, as we are, after all, looking at the effect on licensed premises, but we need to strike a careful balance between the interests of the great majority who drink in sensible moderation as against addressing the people who abuse alcohol and are responsible for mayhem and disorder in our town centres, not to mention issues such as domestic violence and the expense caused, to low-income households in particular, by dependency and addiction. Beer consumption peaked in 1979, and since I left university in 1989 beer consumption in pubs has halved. I am not for a moment suggesting a link between those two facts, but that does put into perspective how quickly this sector has changed. This is not a plea to reject the zeitgeist and return to a golden age of cricket and warm beer in our local pub, but we need to recognise that the competitive environment facing pubs is, in many places, difficult.