ACE alcohol culture exchange
Alcohol and the urban
environment
Alcohol in the urban environment?
Does this…
… mean this?
What was the plan?
Licensing reform will ‘blow away the cobwebs in British
life’
(George Howarth, Home Office Minister, 1998)
Licensing Act 2003 (2005)
Licensing from magistrates to LAs
No fixed closing
Cosmopolitan ‘café society’
The ‘politics of behaviour’ and culture change
But everyone knows that….
… or is it?
Exhibit A: The Gin Craze
William Hogarth, ‘Gin Lane’ (1751)
But…
Lack of licensing controls
Expansion of supply
Low taxation
Urban poverty
Reactive policymaking
Concerns about women
National character?
Consumption (gallons per head) 1800-1935
Source: Health Committee, Alcohol (2010)
Consumption (litres per head) 1965-2006
Source: BBPA, Statistical Handbook (2007)
Consumption (avg weekly units) 1992-2006
Source: General Lifestyle Survey / ONS (2011), Smoking and Drinking among Adults, 2009
Changing cultures (1960-90)
Licensing liberalised (1961 and 1964)
Supermarket sales
Foreign travel
Global wine trade
Greater affluence
Demographic changes
Changing cultures (1990+)
New bar design
Beer Orders (1990)
Response to rave culture
‘24-hour cities’
‘Need’ abandoned
Pre-loading normalised
Culture of consumption
Media reporting
Alcohol in the urban environment?
Alcohol in the urban environment?
Norms and expectations
It’s as British as rain (drinking to get drunk is
inevitable)
Young people always do this:
More enforcement (especially the off-trade) is the only
answer
Alcohol and the urban environment
What is really happening?
How can data be shared effectively?
What is the role of education and adjustment of social
norms?
And how can this be achieved in practice?
What is the role of enforcement?
How can effective partnerships be established and
maintained?