A Bristol health expert has blamed cheap alcohol being sold in supermarkets for a "horrifying" rise in drinking.

NHS Bristol chief executive Deborah Evans has chaired a study into the cost of alcohol in the UK and the effect it is having on young people.

It found that alcohol can be bought for as little as 9p per unit, with some supermarkets selling three litres of cider for just £1.18.

The study, called the Core Cities Health Improvement Collaborative (CCHIC) – made up of the primary care trusts from the eight largest cities outside London – showed the price of alcohol is falling.

Ms Evans said: "The price at which alcohol can be bought in and around our inner cities today is nothing short of horrifying.

"This wasn't just happening in one city, but in a number.

"Even leaving aside the consequences this type of cheap alcohol has on crime and disorder in our big cities, the effects that this type of drink has on our health doesn't bear thinking about."

The study discovered three litres of cider in big name supermarkets for just £1.18 and £1.26 – which is equivalent to 9p and 10p a unit respectively.

They also found super strength cider, at 7.5 per cent, available for £1.59 – which is 10.6p a unit.

The Core Cities Health Improvement Collaborative was set up earlier this year by the 10 primary care trusts (PCTs) in England's eight largest cities outside London – Birmingham, Bristol, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle, Nottingham and Sheffield.

As part of its work to tackle the harm caused by alcohol, it carried out a snapshot poll into the price of budget alcohol available across the UK.

Previous studies carried out elsewhere in the UK had found cider available for around 11p per unit.

Earlier this year, England's chief medical officer, Professor Liam Donaldson, called on the Government to introduce a minimum price of 50p per unit of alcohol.

Professor Ian Gilmore, president of the Royal College of Physicians, has since said that a 50p minimum unit price would cut the number of hospital admissions by around 100,000, cut rates of heavy drinking by 10 per cent and reduce underage drinking by seven per cent.

Over the weekend it emerged that an initiative recently announced by the Government to combat underage drinking had been scrapped.

Downing Street admitted that it had dropped plans to give local authorities powers to close pubs and bars which served alcohol to people who repeatedly caused anti-social behaviour.

The Core Cities report coincides with a separate finding, also published today, by Alcohol Concern, which says 90,800 people will die avoidable deaths from alcohol-related causes by 2019.