Giles Thorley backs calls to reduce drinking age

Punch Taverns chief executive Giles Thorley has added his weight to calls for the drinking age in the UK to be lowered to 16.

The boss of the biggest pub company in the country believes the move would help reduce problems related to underage drinking, as long as it was strictly controlled.

His call comes after comments from JD Wetherspoon boss Tim Martin earlier this month that the government's current action on young people drinking was making the problem worse, rather than better.

Polled for a forthcoming feature in The Publican​, Thorley said: "Look at the US. There, alcohol is so hard to come by for young adults that many turn to drugs because they are easier to get."

Any reduction in the age at which young people are allowed to consume alcohol should be accompanied by controls such as limiting the strength of beer available to them or banning of sales of strong alcohol such as spirits to youngsters, he said.

"If you treat people with respect they rarely abuse that," declared Thorley.

"It would be better to have young people introduced to pubs and alcohol in a gradual and discretionary way, rather than have them go out on their 18th birthday and overdo it."

There was "no logic" to calls to raise the legal drinking age to 21 in the UK, he said, responding to Michael Craik, the chief constable of Northumbria, who earlier this month said the limit should be increased to help police from becoming overwhelmed by alcohol-related assaults.

The majority of pubs sell alcohol responsibly, he added, while "it wouldn't do any harm for the supermarkets to put a limit" on the amount of booze they could sell to a customer at any one time.

How would you​ improve the pub industry? Contact Hamish on 020 7955 3712 or at hamishc@thepublican. com and let him know.