Super-strength lagers, favoured by binge drinkers and alcoholics, are to face a big rise in duty in the budget to try to improve the nation’s health.
Beers with an alcohol content of more than 7.5%, which health campaigners and homeless charities have warned promote alcoholism, are expected to increase by 3p a pint.
The moves to promote responsible drinking in this month’s budget will also include a cut in the rate of duty on low-alcohol beers. Those with an alcohol strength of 2.8% or below could see the duty reduced by 3p a pint to tempt brewers to produce more low-alcohol beer and encourage drinkers to restrict their alcohol intake.
A government review into alcohol taxation found some super-strength lagers contain more alcohol in a single can than the chief medical officer recommends for daily consumption. Men are advised not to exceed 3-4 units daily, while for women the suggested limit is 2-3 units.
Among the high-strength beers that will be hit by the budget change are Carlsberg Special Brew and Tennent’s super-strength lager (both 9%). Some speciality and continental brands will also be affected including Piraat, the Belgian beer which has a 10.5% alcohol content, and the Swiss Samichlaus which has 14% alcohol.
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The niche beers, drunk by connoisseurs, are being affected even though they are generally served in smaller bottles. Treasury officials say that because they are more likely to be drunk by people on higher incomes and in small quantities with a meal, the duty hike should not adversely affect sales.
The budget will also include a rise in the tax threshold to about £8,000, increasing by thousands the number of people who do not have to pay any tax.
In the last budget the income tax threshold was increased to £7,475 as part of the coalition’s pledge to raise it to £10,000 by the end of the current parliament.
There are tensions over the tax level to be announced in the budget on March 23. The Liberal Democrats want to take it beyond £8,000 as a symbolic gesture to help kickstart the economy, but the Tories argue that there are not enough funds available to justify such a rise.
In what George Osborne, the chancellor, will portray as a budget for growth, the inner team of David Cameron, Nick Clegg and Oliver Letwin are also expected to include:
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The Treasury is also looking at merging income tax and National Insurance under a single rate as part of a plan to simplify Britain’s tax system. The longer-term policy goal is being examined by officials and could save firms millions.
Tomorrow Labour will claim that coalition reforms are costing families in “the squeezed middle” the equivalent of 5p extra in income tax.
Ed Miliband, the Labour leader, and his shadow chancellor Ed Balls will unveil figures showing how typical families will have lost out by April through a combination of lost tax credits, the Vat rise, fuel duty and tax and National Insurance adjustments.
A family of four comprising a sole breadwinner on £44,000, a pregnant stay-at-home mother and two children aged 8 and 5 will lose out by £1,434, according to research by the House of Commons Library, says Labour.
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A working couple with joint earnings of £47,000 and two children will lose out by £1,304, the equivalent of a 4p increase in the basic rate of tax.
Miliband and Balls will also repeat calls for last January’s Vat rise on fuel, which added about 3p to the price of a litre of petrol, to be scrapped.
“David Cameron is making the cost of living crisis worse by hitting ordinary families. They are selling middle and low- income earners down the river and betraying the promise of Britain for families and children,” Miliband said.
“There are already many families feeling the squeeze in their daily life, their weekly shop and their monthly bills.”