Alcohol harm costs £27.4bn in England every year

In the first nationwide analysis of its kind in over 20 years, the latest figures show that there has been over a 40 per cent increase in the cost of harm from alcohol since last calculated in 2003. Tax revenue from alcohol only raises around £12.5bn each year, meaning it is dwarfed by the financial cost of harm.

The economic burden on the NHS now stands at £4.9bn, enough to pay for the salaries of almost half the nurses in England.

Katherine Severi, IAS’s chief executive, said, “Year after year, we have seen steady increases in alcohol consumption, and deaths are at a record high. Now we have data to show that the financial cost of harm has risen too. As a country, we cannot afford to sit back and do nothing. The government should develop a comprehensive alcohol strategy to tackle this rising harm, which would have a knock-on effect of reducing the financial burden too.”