Binge drinking is costing the North-East a staggering £1bn a year, the region's top public health officer claimed yesterday.

Bill Kirkup called for tougher powers at local level to clamp down on cheap drink promotions that have left the North-East with Britain's biggest alcohol problem.

Mr Kirkup, the regional public health director, said the North-East suffers a net loss of £1bn from its GDP each year as a result of drinking to excess.

That includes the number of staff missing work through illness, the cost of treatment for the effects of alcohol, and repairs to property damaged in drink-fuelled violence.

Research shows 29pc of men and 17pc of women in the North-East regularly exceed the recommended daily amount of alcohol. Men drink an average of 20.8 units a week, while women drink 9.4 units.

Dr Kirkup said: "£1bn is a conservative estimate. It comes because of economic deprivation. People here have less time to invest in other leisure pursuits, less money to spend on more expensive diversions, less access to alternative entertainment and less motivation to forgo the short term pleasures in favour of long term gains.

"There is of course an entertainment industry which I can't say is encouraging people to drink too much, but certainly encourages them to drink more, through promotions like happy hours."

He said efforts are being made to encourage licensees to stop these schemes, and they will be discouraged when local councils take responsibility for issuing drinks licences next year.

But Dr Kirkup said: "It's possible that may be insufficient. Then we would need legislation to allow us to stop them across an area in one go."

Northumbria Police chief constable Crispian Strachan said: "It is a problem both in city centres and on places like Osborne Road in Jesmond and causes difficulties around ill health, mass disorder and violent crime."

He said the terms of licensing legislation should be used more stringently to clamp down on bars which knowingly serve people who are already drunk.

But John Hudson, president of licensees' organisation the Federation of Licensed Victuallers, disputed the £1bn figure.

He said: "No sensible licensee or organisation would endorse the very, very poor promotions that one or two people are carrying out. It's already in hand. The Government are already looking at it. But I would suggest he's talking Mickey Mouse figures."

North-East CBI director Steve Rankin said: "On a purely observational basis, there is an issue of binge drinking in the North-East which should be addressed - that's quite clear. But I have little evidence to say it affects absenteeism."

The Journal: Today's Voice of the North

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