Homeless charity slams Portman super strength ruling
Homeless charity Thames Reach has slammed the Portman Group for not banning super strength lagers.
The charity complained that 500ml cans of Skol Super, Kestrel Super, Carlsberg Special Brew and Tennent's Super encourage bingeing because they contain more units than the Government's recommended daily consumption limits.
Portman said no distinction could be made between cans of strong lager and bottles of wine.
It did find Kestrel Super in breach of the code because its strength was a dominant theme in its marketing.
"These decisions completely discredit the Portman Group's Complaints Panel," said Thames Reach chief executive Jeremy Swain.
"The panel's conclusions that drinking a can of lager is comparable to consuming a bottle of wine in that neither vessel is meant to be re-sealable flies in the face of common sense.
"The public are well aware that a bottle of wine can be re-corked and saved, a can of lager is always consumed in one bout of drinking."
InBev has agreed to voluntarily reduce the size of its can of Tennent's Super to 440ml.
The Treasury has also rejected an approach from Thames Reach to tax super-strength more heavily.
Tax rejection
A letter from the Treasury said that "an increase in price of a specific alcoholic drink... is not effective at decreasing harmful alcoholic consumption".
Swain added: "It would be extremely helpful if the Government could make up its mind on this crucial issue.
"We are convinced that increasing the price of strong lagers and decreasing the price of weaker lagers will lead to people moving off of the super-strengths and that lives will be saved.
"Australia has adopted this approach and reaped the benefits in terms of a reduction in alcohol-related health problems and we would urge a similar approach be adopted in the UK."
Thames Reach's own figures show that around 800 of the 4,000 homeless people it helps each year in London are addicted to super-strength lagers.
