Controversy over plans to open PoundPub chain selling beer for £1 'like Poundland'

PoundPub, a discount hostelry, plans to offer half a lager for £1 and a pint for £1.50.

14:02 25 March 2014

Discount hostelry PoundPub is set to open its doors to offer ‘affordable beer’ amid controversy regarding the possible link between cheap alcohol and dangerous levels of binge drinking and alcohol abuse. 

 

It was announced that the firm plans to offer half a lager for a pound and a pint for the low price of £1.50. While alcohol awareness campaigners did not welcome the news, some pub owners were happy with the idea.

 

Mike Wardell, a director of pubco chain Here for Your Hospitality Ltd, said: “We are a responsible retailer and there are licensing objectives there to prevent that happening which we have put at the forefront of our model.”

 

“The idea is to bring people back into the pub and that is why George Osborne reduced the beer tax by a penny at the Budget.” 

 

“If it is a success – like Poundland – we will roll it out to other sites.” 

 

On the other hand, Alcohol campaigner Colin Shevells, director of Balance, strongly opposed the move: He said: "Drink is already too affordable, too available and too heavily promoted. We know that problems are caused by it being too cheap.

 

“The PoundPub is just part of a much bigger problem. We need to wake up to the problems cheap alcohol is causing both in the short and long term.”