‘Spending will slide after smoking ban’
The ban will impact pubs, restaurants and workplaces throughout the country and could cut spending on tobacco and alcoholic drinks by close to three per cent, according to a report from the centre for economics and business research (cebr).
Many tobacco-lovers are expected to kick their expensive habit when the ban comes into effect on July 1st and this could prove beneficial to the finances of smokers aiming to become debt free.
Jaspreet Sehmi, one of the authors on the new report and an economist at cebr, said: “We expect belts to tighten across the board over the next eighteen months as high interest rates, low house price inflation and a weak international economic situation take effect.
“However, while tobacco and alcohol sales have traditionally been relatively immune to these cyclical effects, we expect the smoking ban to change that on this occasion and sales to drop.”
The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence recently recommended that employers in the UK should give their staff paid time off work to get help to quit smoking.