Last month an influential group of MPs made a call for minimum pricing and blasted supermarkets for heavily discounting alcohol. All I have to say to them is: 'what kept you?'

Responsible publicans across the nation have been calling for the introduction of minimum pricing for ages. I don't think I'd be alone in saying that I was beginning to wonder if politicians would ever take notice of the fact that pubs are closing, and a great British tradition is being destroyed before our very eyes.

The introduction of a minimum price per unit of alcohol would only improve business for responsible operators in the trade. It wouldn't harm my businesses at all, because in a pint of lager there are 2.3 units of alcohol. That means if you say it's 50p per unit, you'd have to charge a minimum of £1.30 for a pint. We don't charge any less that 1.90 anyway.

Supermarkets would then have to come in line, and people would start going out again instead of just drinking in the house.

With January's news it seems that we might finally be getting somewhere - the health committee's long-awaited report into alcohol states that a minimum price of 50p per unit would help save more than 3,000 lives a year.

The report, the result of a nine-month long inquiry, found some places selling alcohol for as little as 10p a unit. 'Bargain!' some may say, but as someone who works in the pub trade and sees the effect that cut-price drinking has on many night-time revellers, I can assure you that this is one price reduction not to be proud of.

In Sunderland it's a fiver to drink as much as you want in some pubs. We're going backwards - we're supposed to be promoting responsible drinking, how can anyone claim that 'a fiver to drink as much as you like' is a responsible incentive from a trader?

Of course, pubs are a major part of my business - I want to get people out of their living rooms and back into their locals to support my industry, but I truly believe that the introduction of minimum pricing will also curb our growing binge-drinking problem and get rid of irresponsible traders.

I'm not alone. Tony Brookes, managing director of North East-based pub company Head of Steam, recently commented to The Publican: "This is good news. I totally believe in minimum pricing. Without doubt it is the supermarkets causing the binge-drinking problems and they need their knuckles wrapped."

Dr. Chris Record, a liver specialist at Newcastle University, claimed that families in Britain "have nothing to fear" from a 50p per unit minimum price, writing in the journal Clinical Medicine, from the Royal College of Physicians, saying: "The overall effect should be a reduction in average weekly supermarket bills for the majority, while harmful and hazardous drinkers will pay more."

The government must respond to the health committee's report within two months. For the sake of decent pubs everywhere, as well as the health of our nation, let's hope they finally take some action.