Councils should be able to curb pub and off licence opening hours in a bid to cut costs and ease the pressures of alcohol-related admissions on hospitals, it has been claimed.
Figures show that excessive alcohol consumption hits the NHS to the tune of £3.5bn a year.
Over the last 10 years, alcohol-related hospital admissions have risen 40 per cent - totalling 198,900 in 2010-11.
Freely available alcohol at late-night pubs and shops has been blamed for fuelling the problem, and putting those battling alcohol addiction or suffering with existing alcohol-related illnesses at an increased risk.
The Local Government Association is calling for councils to be given more powers when ruling on licensing bids. It is also urging the government to change rules that stop councils acting on warnings from local health experts.
Under the Police and Social Responsibility Act 2011, healthcare specialists can provide ambulance call-out data and hospital admissions data to local authorities. However, government restrictions mean councils are unable to take this into account when deciding on licence applications.
Katie Hall, chair of the LGA’s community wellbeing board, said: “Councils continue to embrace their public health responsibilities to improve the health of their communities. By shifting this responsibility back to councils, the government has rightly acknowledged they are best-placed to take local decisions for their residents.
“Local health experts have a vital role to play in advising councils on the potential impacts of an application to open new licensed premises. That makes it even more nonsensical that councils are being forced to ignore their advice when considering additional licences they know could be a health hazard.
“The government needs to see sense and help communities by updating licensing rules and adding a new health objective. This would help improve the health of local areas and also ease the pressure on the nation’s stretched health services.”
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