Public Health Directors Urge Treasury to Set a 65p Alcohol Floor in England

The Association of Directors of Public Health has urged the U.K. Treasury to use this year’s Autumn Budget to back a wider prevention strategy and to introduce a minimum price of 65p per unit of alcohol in England, adding a fresh public health demand to the government’s budget planning.

In a submission published on September 9, the group said it had sent its recommendations to the Treasury ahead of the budget. It said the government should make prevention and public health a central part of policy across departments, restore the public health grant in England to its 2015/16 real-terms per person value, and ensure equivalent investment in public health in the devolved nations.

The proposal that is likely to draw the most attention from drinks producers and retailers is the call for a 65p minimum unit price, often known as MUP, for alcohol sold in England. A minimum unit price sets a legal floor below which alcohol cannot be sold, based on the amount of pure alcohol in the product rather than on the type of drink.

At 65p per unit, the policy would reach across beer, wine, cider and spirits. A bottle of wine containing 10 units of alcohol could not legally be sold for less than £6.50. A 700ml bottle of spirits at 40% alcohol, which contains about 28 units, would have a minimum price of about £18.20. For the drinks industry, that would potentially change pricing structures across categories, limit some deep-discount promotions, and affect margins and supply agreements tied to lower-priced products.

The association did not lay out a detailed mechanism for how a 65p floor would be introduced or enforced, but its submission made clear that it sees the measure as part of a broader prevention agenda rather than as a stand-alone alcohol policy. The group said the government should adopt a “Health in All Policies and wellbeing approach” across the whole of government, with investment in prevention and public health at the center.

That framing puts alcohol pricing alongside wider funding demands. The association is also calling for the public health grant to be restored to the level it says local services received in 2015/16 on a real-terms, per-person basis. Public health leaders have argued for years that local authorities have had to manage rising health pressures with budgets that have not kept pace with inflation, population changes and demand.

The request for equivalent investment in the devolved nations signals that the group wants public health spending to be strengthened across the U.K., even though its direct call for a 65p minimum unit price applies specifically to England. Health and alcohol policy already differ across the four nations, and any move by England would add to those differences.

The recommendation comes as ministers prepare for the Autumn Budget at a time when public spending choices remain under pressure. Public health advocates have been trying to push prevention higher up the Treasury agenda, arguing that earlier intervention can reduce later costs for the National Health Service, local government and other public services. The association’s submission reflects that argument by linking its alcohol proposal to broader investment in community health.

A minimum unit price has long been one of the more disputed tools in alcohol policy because it affects retail pricing directly. Supporters say it is aimed at very cheap, high-strength alcohol and is designed to reduce alcohol-related harm. Critics in the drinks trade have often argued that pricing rules can distort competition, hit some consumers harder than others and create operational costs for producers, distributors and retailers. A 65p level in England would be watched closely by supermarkets, convenience chains, pubs and drinks companies because it could change the price floor for products that now rely on low-price promotions or value positioning.

The association’s statement did not estimate how much revenue the government would need to restore the public health grant, nor did it attach a timeline to the alcohol measure. It instead set out what it described as priority actions for the budget. That leaves open the key political questions: whether Treasury officials will take up any of the recommendations, whether ministers are willing to legislate on alcohol pricing in England, and how such a proposal would fit with wider tax and cost-of-living debates.

For drinks businesses, the proposal matters because minimum pricing works differently from alcohol duty. Duty changes tax paid on alcohol, but a minimum unit price creates a mandatory selling floor that applies product by product. That means the impact can fall unevenly across the market. Lower-priced own-label lines, bulk promotions and some high-strength products may face the greatest pressure, while premium brands selling well above the threshold may see little direct effect. Importers, wholesalers and retailers would also need to review contracts, promotional plans and shelf pricing if the proposal moved forward.

The association did not say whether it had held discussions with the Treasury beyond submitting its recommendations, and it did not provide new research in the short statement posted online. Its intervention was instead a clear budget message: public health directors want prevention spending protected and expanded, and they want England to adopt a stronger pricing measure on alcohol as part of that strategy.