By The Joseph Rowntree Foundation (August 2012)
This study explored the lives of young people in two regions of England where alcohol-related harm rates differ and found that: the north has a higher degree of reported indicators of alcohol-related harms than the south-east and the south-west, but despite this young people’s drinking behaviour in these areas followed similar patterns; young people rarely drank on their own; young people actively sought out clusters of youth-orientated bars, and sometimes these clusters encouraged young people to drink more than they intended; and planning authorities had often been unable to resist commercial pressures to allow clubs and bars to fill units that would otherwise be vacant, despite a wish to limit the number of licensed premises.