15 August 2007
A leading UK homelessness charity is urging the Government to heed calls from police chief Peter Fahey to raise the price of super strength beers.
Thames Reach Director James Francis stepped into the debate today to highlight the serious health problems, premature deaths and social devastation caused by super strength lagers among marginalised and homeless people.
Speaking from his East London office, he noted that a single 500ml can of 9% super strength lager contains four and a half units of alcohol. This exceeds the Government’s daily recommended safe alcohol limit of between three and four units for men and two to three units for women and is a clear breach of the drinks industry’s own corporate social responsibility guidelines.
He called on the breweries and Government to tackle this discrepancy and ensure that the availability of 9% super strength lagers is drastically reduced.
He recommended an increase in tax on these products to make it economically unviable to produce them for mass consumption, as is the case in many other countries.
He also expressed concern at the prospect of a new generation of youngsters falling into the same trap as the 800 vulnerable homeless people that Thames Reach currently supports for whom super strength lager is the main cause of their alcohol-related health problems.
He said: “Our campaign is not a moralistic one. Our intention is simply to highlight the impact of the super strength lager phenomenon that has developed over the past 20 years across the UK and the entirely unacceptable cull of people whose deaths are hastened through consuming these products.
“We need support and help from the breweries and Government to end the easy availability of nine per cent lagers and to accept that the cost of cheap, super strength lager is, in human terms, simply too high.”
Thames Reach recently launched a campaign to highlight the shocking problems faced by vulnerable, middle aged, former rough sleepers who have debilitating health problems more commonly associated with pensioners – often due to the consumption of super strength lagers and ciders.
It has coined the term ‘young olds’ in response to its work with this growing number of individuals aged between forty and their mid-fifties who are typically suffering from heart and liver disease, brain damage, poor mobility, loss of memory and incontinence.
Many ‘young olds’ are currently stuck in unsuitable temporary housing such as hostels, rather than the smaller units of accommodation with specialist support that they require. They are unable to gain access to the services available for older people and therefore occupy beds intended for people sleeping rough in the capital.
Thames Reach is concerned that most local authorities are not aware of the emergence of these ‘young olds’ or of the need to provide housing and support. It is calling on the commissioning bodies to fund specialist, long-term accommodation.
