Over recent years, a significant shift in consumption has taken place. It is believed that now 65% of all alcohol is now sold by off-licensed premises, indicating a strong shift in consumption away from pubs and bars and towards ‘home drinking’. As a result of this trend, drinking contexts have significantly changed. The demise of the traditional British pub versus and the rise of supermarket sales has sparked many questions about alcohol’s price, availability and environment.

The symposium 'Home drinking: responding to a significant shift in consumption' explored what is known about these changes and what policy leads and commissioners should consider in response. Below some presentations from the day and associated reports are made available:

• Home Drinking: an unacknowledged issue?.pdf James Morris, AERC Alcohol Academy
• Home drinking - setting the scene.pdf Dr John Foster, Greenwich University. Based on Why do people drink at home? AERC Alcohol Insight 68
• Where people drink - from city centre to home.pdf Valentine. G, Jayne. M, Holloway. S, Unisveristy of Leeds. Based on the JRF report Drinking places: where people drink and why
  
• The Demise of the Pub? Phil Mellows, journalist. Supporting documents: How pubs are changing.doc and Licensing reform thoughts.doc
• Research to assess the impact of the alcohol self help leaflet.pdf Liz Ambler, Regional Alcohol Manager East Midlands. See also full evaluation report
• Older People and home drinking.pdf Kate Ray, Programme Lead for Alcohol, Worcestershire DAAT. See also full report

The Academy will shortly produce a briefing paper summarising the key discussions and reccomendations for alcohol and policy leads.