UK has 'dangerous booze addiction'

Britain is developing a dangerous alcohol addiction, with drinkers in the North most likely to binge, researchers claim.

Experts warn that Britain has gone from a nation "enjoying a harmless tipple" to one developing "a dangerous alcohol addiction".

At least 18 per cent of adults binge at least double the daily recommended level in one or more sessions a week.

Drinkers are the North are more likely to die of alcohol-related illnesses than their counterparts in the South. They are also more likely to be admitted to hospital because of their love of booze.

Areas such as Liverpool, Manchester and Middlesborough had around 70 per cent more admissions than England as a whole, with more than 1,400 men admitted per 100,000 people.

And Blackpool was named as having one of the worst problems with booze, researchers said.

Across the whole of England, the average loss of life due to drinking was ten months for men and five for women.

But in Blackpool, men could expect to shave 23 months off their life and women 13 months - around 140 per cent above the English average.

Professor Mark Bellis, director of the Centre for Public Health, said: "These profiles graphically illustrate the growing costs of cheap alcohol, a night-time economy almost exclusively packed with bars and clubs and a failure to deliver a credible drinking message to both youths and adults.

"We hope that making these statistics widely available will highlight that we are no longer a nation enjoying a harmless tipple but increasingly one developing a dangerous alcohol addiction."

Shadow home secretary David Davis said: "This alarming research shows why it was wrong of the Government to unleash 24-hour drinking on all our towns and cities without a proper assessment of the consequences.

"Yet again, the public are put at risk by the irresponsible actions of this Government."

ITV News