Prime Minister David Cameron asked his ministers to develop a system in order to prohibit in supermarkets and shops the sale of alcoholic beverages at low cost. He said low prices are responsible for a public health problem costing 3,18 billion euros a year in England.

A generalized increase in taxes is the only solution currently envisaged, without differentiating alcoholic beverages at very low prices of the other. A government survey in December 2011 supports this direction. It concludes that "the establishment of a minimum price of 50 pence per unit of alcohol would prevent 2,000 premature deaths per year. "

Such measures already exist in Scotland, where the minimum price of a unit of alcohol is 45 pence since 2011. The average price of a unit of alcohol before this law was around 14 pence in supermarkets. The new English taxation represent an additional cost of 823 million euros for consumers. Guy Woodward, editor of Decanter, said that "the core of the problem comes from supermarkets. They use wine as a loss leader, selling it at a loss by trimming the margins and manhandling suppliers. "