Concern over level of drinking at home as issue of alcohol in Sunderland investigated

Councillors have raised concerns over the rising number of people drinking at home and the levels of alcohol they consume.

It comes after Sunderland City Council health chiefs provided an update on the city’s alcohol strategy ‘Calling Time: it’s time to rethink drink’ and its supporting action plan to help deliver on its objectives.

Officers stressed “a lot of hard work” has been taking place with partners since the blueprint was launched last year, which includes a focus on prevention and early intervention measures.

Other objectives include working to provide specialist support to promote a quality treatment and recovery system, and protecting children, young people and families from alcohol-related harm.

Councillors at the latest meeting of the city council’s health and wellbeing scrutiny committee raised their concerns around alcohol consumption in Sunderland, including the levels of alcohol being consumed by residents in their own homes.

Councillor Mel Speding, Shiney Row ward representative, said: “I just worry about, you see the amount of public houses going to the wall, the amount of drinking now that’s done at home where we’re not able to monitor that in real terms.”

Councillor Malcolm Bond, Fulwell ward representative, added the “big problem at the present” in his view is drinking in homes, with alcohol “readily available” in shops.

He said: “It’s about the social change, post-Covid really, where I think a lot of people got into the habit of drinking alcohol at home

“People are at home a lot more often than they are in the pub, generally most people, so I think the message that if we could just get people drinking alcohol in pubs it would in itself reduce the problem.”

Health officers stressed they have aimed to reflect changes in drinking habits in their strategy, while their action plan is a “live document” that aims to incorporate emerging trends.

Gerry Taylor, the city council’s director of public health, noted they have “campaigns in general about alcohol and not drinking too much alcohol”, rather than focusing on where people drink it.

She added: “Not everyone realises the links between alcohol and cancer and it’s part of the preventative message.”

Meanwhile, councillor Ehthesham Haque, Barnes Ward representative, said a key priority must be around reducing the availability of cheap alcohol.

He added: “There are some brands of alcohol when you look at it and you know for a fact someone is going to buy that only so they can binge drink.”

Health chiefs said they work with licensing colleagues to help monitor the levels of alcohol sold in shops across the city, along with helping to ensure children are protected from the harms of alcohol.

Sarah Norman, senior public health practitioner, said: “We work to try and deter, like you say, that availability of cheap alcohol within Sunderland.

“We do work looking at minimum unit pricing and lobbying government towards minimum unit pricing which is something in Sunderland we’re passionate about, we do a lot of work in that area.”

Minimum unit pricing is already in place in Scotland and aims to reduce the availability of cheap alcohol by setting a minimum price per unit of alcohol.