Full story in The Independent, 13 September 2018
Cuts to council budgets for addiction services have led to lowest number of people receiving treatment for alcohol dependency in a decade despite people in need continuing to grow, data from the Labour Party shows.
Research by the House of Commons Library estimates the number of alcohol dependent adults in England has risen steadily since 2011 and more than 600,000 adults needed support as of 2016-17.
However the number of people in alcohol treatment has fallen more than 12 per cent since 2013, when damaging NHS reforms introduced by Tory health secretary Andrew Lansley shifted public health responsibility to councils.