Yikes! £3 pint is on the way

The £3 pint may be just around the corner if the "chasm" between pub prices in the North and South continues to grow.

Prices have risen alarmingly in the South-East since drinkers became resigned to paying more than £2 for a pint - and brewers are now taking advantage of the psychological breakthrough to push prices towards £3.

If that's not enough to make you drown your sorrows, in other parts of the country the price of a drink is actually falling. Southerners pay 35p more than Northerners for a pint of bitter, 29p for lager and 36p for a glass of wine, with the contrast even greater in central London, according to a survey by the Publican Newspaper.

The report says: "One of the biggest leaps is the price of lager in the South-East. After touching £2 two years ago, it crept up by only a penny last year but has now surged ahead to an average of £2.13 for a pint. It seems likely that, as more pubs have broken through the £2 barrier, the psychological pressure has been released and customers have grown used to paying the price. A fifth of pubs in the South-East now charge £2.26 or more. The North-South divide has widened to a chasm when it comes to what people pay in the pub."

But it's not just beer drinkers who may feel they are being fleeced for the pleasure of drinking in and around the capital. The price of wine fell by an average of 6p in the North-West over the past year but amazingly rose by 10p in the South East.

One reason why Southerners are paying so much more for a pint of bitter is because many brewers are based in the North and the wide range of beers available there is keeping the price down, the report says.

Unfortunately for Southern wine drinkers, however, having more choice is actually driving the price of wine upwards because those who want something other than a Chardonnay have to pay more for the privilege.

If that news is making you think of giving up beer and wine altogether and moving on to the hard stuff, do not bother, because we also pay the most for a shot of whisky - an average of £1.27.