Behind the bar: what publicans really think about alcohol policy

Alcohol harm reached record highs after the pandemic, but at the same time pubs across the country have been struggling. This paradox raises an important question: what is driving harm to both health and hospitality?

Pubs and public health have more in common than many people consider. Both have a stake in thriving communities where people can socialise, connect, and enjoy themselves in ways that reduce harm and support wellbeing.

But many of the issues facing pubs have been driven by the shift in alcohol sales away from hospitality and towards supermarkets, off-licences, and rapid delivery apps – a trend that has made cheap, home-drunk alcohol more available, pubs harder to sustain, and alcohol deaths soar.

Yet the public debate is still dominated by trade bodies that are often presented as “the voice of the industry”, despite mainly representing large pub companies and multinational alcohol producers whose interests are closely tied to the off-trade. Publicans themselves are rarely asked what they think. This report does that directly, by presenting findings from 200 interviews with publicans across England.

• Over 1/3 of publicans think society’s relationship with alcohol has got worse since 2020.
• Publicans think the off-trade is the problem. 62% say supermarket alcohol is too cheap; 60% want government to close the price gap with pubs.
• Publicans back the policies trade bodies lobby against. 58% support minimum unit pricing in England against just 14% opposed.
• Over half support health warnings on labels; 46% back bringing alcohol marketing rules in line with those for unhealthy food against only 17% opposed.
• 75% back a lower drink-drive limit – including rural publicans by almost two to one, whom the BBPA has specifically claimed would suffer most.
• Their real worries are costs, not red tape. Rent, energy, and staffing costs (43% each), supplier costs (41%) and business rates (33%) dominate.
• Two-thirds want to see more investment in both alcohol treatment (67%) and public education (67%).
• A majority wants stricter licensing rules in the off- trade: 56% in favour, 20% opposed.

With home drinking resulting in deaths and hospital admissions at record levels, this is where the interests of public health and publicans converge. Sensible public policy can simultaneously look after both, with a key role for licensing and pricing policies at the core. In 2025, IAS gathered policy recommendations from over 40 experts in alcohol research, treatment, and policy, and published them in A Healthier Future: A long-term vision to tackle alcohol harm in the UK. The following recommendations are the policies which overlap with that vision and what publicans called for in this report.

Policies to protect health and support communities

1. Narrow the on/off-trade price gap, by significantly increasing off-trade duty, and expanding Draught Relief.
2. Introduce minimum unit pricing in England – which evidence shows would narrow the price gap between pubs and the off-trade.
3. Introduce tougher drink-drive regulations (as set out in the Road Safety Strategy).
4. Empower local authorities to regulate hours of sale and online deliveries of alcohol.
5. Invest further in treatment and education.
6. Add health warnings to alcohol labels.
7. Bring alcohol marketing rules in line with those for unhealthy food.

Support for pubs and publicans

In addition, publicans called for the following support from government. Although these are not public health measures, if they are used to shift drinking away from the off-trade to the on-trade, alongside public health policies, there is rationale for them supporting public health too:

1. Reduce business rates for pubs.
2. Reduce the wider cost burden on pubs – energy, rent, staffing, food VAT, employer NICs.
3. Ground licensing reform in publicans’ actual priorities, not assumed ones.

We don’t need alcohol to be cheaper. We need government to recognise the difference between a pint served in a regulated community pub and cheap alcohol sold for consumption at home.

Adam Taylor, White Lion, Barrow-in-Furness