Pocket-money alcohol prices 'encourage the young to binge drink'

For £7.29, it is possible to buy more than three times the recommended daily alcohol intake for men or four times that of women, according to an investigation by Alcohol Concern.

That sum compares with the £9.53 average weekly pocket money for 12 to 16-year-olds.

It is particularly worrying as previous studies have shown that around 29 per cent of under-18s are able to buy alcohol in pubs and 21 per cent in off-licences.

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The findings come days after it was revealed the number of children receiving treatment for alcohol abuse is soaring.

Alcohol Concern investigated how much alcohol a teenager could get hold of using their pocket money. By selecting the cheapest deals at Sainsbury's, the Co- op and Somerfield, its researchers could buy disturbingly large amounts.

The chains were chosen because they most frequently failed the Home Office's test purchasing campaign this year, the charity said.

A 35cl bottle of Bacardi was on offer at the Co-op for £7.29.

This contained 13.12 units of alcohol, which is more than triple the recommended daily intake for men and more than quadruple that for women.

Four bottles of WKD Vodka Blue on sale at Sainsbury's for £7.88 had 11 units of alcohol, and ten bottles of Budweiser priced at £6.59 had 10.35 units of alcohol.

Don Shenker of Alcohol Concern said: "Cheap alcohol promotions help explain just why those young people who drink can afford to do so at far greater levels than in the past."

The charity's Cheap at Twice the Price report calls on the Government to bring in higher taxes on alcohol to make it less affordable to the young.

Earlier this week it emerged that the number of under-18s undergoing treatment for alcohol abuse had soared by 40 per cent in the last year.

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More than half of those were female, raising concerns about the effect of 'ladette culture' on impressionable girls.

Young girls are drinking nearly twice as much alcohol as they were seven years ago.

A Department of Health spokesman said the Government was commissioning an independent review of alcohol pricing, which was expected to report next year.

However Jeremy Beadles, of the Wine and Spirit Trade Association, said: "Under-age drinkers can't legally buy alcohol so raising taxes clearly isn't the easy answer some suggest."

Pete Williams, Somerfield's head of press, said that the supermarket was doing all it could to discourage underage drinking.

"As a high street retailer we receive a disproportionately high number of young people trying to purchase alcohol under the legal age," he said.

"We support our staff and are constantly vigilant to the issue."

A spokesman for Sainsbury's said: "The vast majority of our customers who buy alcohol do so as part of their regular and large grocery shop.

"Our research shows that they consume it over a period of weeks and months."