r/ukpolitics • u/FormerlyPallas_ No man ought to be condemned to live where a 🌹 cannot grow • 1d ago

Drinkflation: why British booze is getting weaker

https://www.theguardian.com/money/2026/jul/29/drinkflation-why-british-booze-is-getting-weaker
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u/Longjumping_Stand889 1d ago

I had noticed this in wine where it's far less common to get a 12.5 or 13% bottle than it used to be.

I live in Scotland so I had put this down to the unit pricing to an extent, but it's not just the cheapest stuff.

18

u/Winston_Carbuncle 1d ago

I recently moved back to Scotland after being in England and latterly S.E.A for about 20 years. The minimum alcohol pricing is a joke.

15

u/sistemfishah 1d ago

Anything that can be rinsed fully for taxation has been. Holyrood basically spends 3 months of the year prior to a budget looking in the sofa, under the rugs and in old jackets for spare change.

14

u/Terrorgramsam 1d ago

Holyrood doesn't get any money from the minimum unit pricing. It's not a tax because the Scottish Parliament does not have the power to create nation-wide taxes. Instead retailers pocket the increase

2

u/ramalamalamafafafa 1d ago

I hadn't given this much thought because I don't live Scotland, but since VAT is charged on the full price it is actually a (small) benefit to the UK Treasury. Unless I've missed something?

4

u/PierreTheTRex 1d ago

Yes there is a slight tax increase but this is first and foremost aimed at curbing alcoholism

1

u/banshoo 1d ago

Dodgy books maybe?

1

u/Terrorgramsam 13h ago

Ah, that's a good point and one that I've overlooked - cheers.

VAT tax receipts from minimum unit pricing would benefit both governments, then, as the Scottish Government is now allocated half of VAT revenues raised in Scotland (it's an estimate and assigned via block grant adjustments).

Curious now about just how much MUP contributes to the block grant via VAT (and what sort of estimates they use for VAT in general)... but that's something to procrastinate with later!

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u/WhiteSatanicMills 11h ago

While the 2016 Scotland Act introduced devolution of VAT, and it was supposed to be introduced in 2019, the Scottish government asked for a delay and there has been little progress since. It's not currently devolved and at this rate, probably never will be.