The figures released a short while ago by the NHS tell a strange story. On the one hand, the total amount the country drinks appears to have fallen, somewhat challenging the view popular in the media that the entire nation is heading to an early, drink-soaked grave.

Yet, at the same time, the number of people drinking heavily is rising.

Binge drinking incidents are up by five per cent for men and seven per cent for women on the year before. The number of people drinking at chronic levels has also gone up by three per cent for men and four per cent for women.

This is the type of behaviour that leads to increased health risks for the drinkers themselves and in many cases feeds into the anti-social behaviour and disorder that blight public spaces across the country. The fact that it is on the increase should give us cause for concern.

The Government, to be fair, has shown itself to be acutely aware of the problem. Last year saw the launch of a revised national alcohol strategy and today Ministers will publish an ambitious new plan to tackle under-age drinking.

In its intent, the national strategy it is a vast improvement on earlier plans.

Notably, it recognises that that high risk drinking is not the preserve of some small, chaotic minority. Since then, the Department of Health has sought to craft messages aimed at the wider public that speaks to their lives in a non-judgmental and supportive way.

The renewed emphasis on making sure that people have the right information to help them make educated decisions about their own drinking is to be welcomed. However, awareness raising work, no matter how sophisticated, can only be part of the solution.

Greater numbers of people are, year on year, entering hospital with chronic ill health linked to alcohol misuse, confirming heavy drinking as one of the biggest causes of the preventable disease burden.

In many cases, these people will be dependent on drink, and good public information campaigns will not be enough to steer them into healthier habits before things go seriously awry.

Yet, despite the enormous revenues generated by the alcohol industry for the Treasury, and the high cost burden borne by the health and criminal justice systems, curiously little money is spent on the treatment and rehabilitation of dependent drinkers.

What's more is that whatever investment does exist varies widely across the country. In the North-East, for example, there are only spaces for one in every 102 dependent drinkers, as compared with a ratio of one
in 12 in the neighbouring North-West.

Part of the problem is that many NHS primary care trusts (which pay for local services to provide heavy drinking residents with support) aren't yet persuaded that more investment in the treatment sector will yield substantial cost savings for their own primary care operations, despite a growing evidence base testifying to just that.

Local drug and alcohol action teams, therefore, face an uphill battle to unlock anything like the sort of money from the trusts and local authorities that would make a real difference to the lives of their clients and their clients' families.

This is made more difficult by conflicting priorities at the senior levels of government. While in the past the Department of Health has called on trusts to put more money into treatment, they have this year developed a range of targets that are more likely than not to focus NHS managers minds on the task of reducing the number of people entering hospital because of difficulties linked to intoxciation, whether that be through accidents or alcohol-related altercations.

It's completely right that we invest resources into bringing down A&E admissions, but there is a risk that these new targets will divert what little money there is for alcohol services away from proper, structured treatment.

To prevent this from happening, it's vital that health ministers show some leadership on this issue, with clearer targets aimed at reducing the numbers of people developing chronic, alcohol-related conditions and crucially, a greater financial allotment to stem the current closures of alcohol services across the country.