A NEW study has concluded that a minimum price for alcohol of 45p per unit would reduce deaths and hospital admissions among high risk drinkers but would have little effect on low income moderate drinkers.

The research, by Sheffield University, will be welcomed by the North-East Alcohol Office, Balance, which has campaigned for a 45p per unit minimum price for alcohol.

Last week Colin Shevills, director of Balance, described the Government’s alternative policy of curbing the sales of below cost alcohol as “laughable” and restated the need for minimum unit alcohol pricing to combat the huge medical, social and financial cost of excessive drinking in the region.

Last summer, after the Government backed away from introducing a minimum price per unit, Mr Shevills warned that the failure to take action would cost lives in the North-East.

The results of the study show that minimum pricing would have the most pronounced effects on the five per cent of the population whose drinking is classified as harmful.

Three-quarters of the total reduction in alcohol consumption resulting from minimum pricing would occur in harmful drinkers, with a predicted total reduction in alcohol-related deaths of 860 per year and hospital admissions by 29,900 per year.

Harmful drinkers on the lowest incomes (bottom 20 per cent) would be most affected by minimum pricing, say the researchers.

They are projected to reduce their alcohol by nearly 300 units per year under minimum pricing.

In contrast, the effects on moderate drinkers would be very small. Moderate drinkers in the lowest income group would reduce their consumption by an estimated 3.8 units (approximately two pints of beer) per year, with an increase in spending of just 4p per year.

Moderate drinkers in general are estimated to reduce their consumption by just 1.6 units (one pint of beer) and spend just 78p more per year.