Make it less available

Alcohol is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Supermarkets, off licences, even petrol stations are selling it.

In 2009/10 there were more than 5,800 licensed premises in the North East and 169 with a licence to sell round the clock. You don’t even need to leave the comfort of your armchair to buy alcohol. Just log on or ‘dial a drink’ and get booze delivered direct to your door.

Research shows a clear link between availability and consumption, so it’s clear that we must reduce availability, if we are to reduce consumption.

Government has an important role to play in this by giving localities greater powers to object to licence applications.

The facts:

• There is a clear association between price, availability and consumption.

• The number of alcohol outlets is related to the prevalence of violent assaults. One study showed that each additional alcohol outlet was associated with 3.4 additional assaults per year.

• The greater the availability of alcohol, the greater the risk of young people suffering from alcohol related harm.