World Cup blamed for dip in leisure spend during June

Total average household spend on drinking, eating out and other leisure fell to £180.28 from £192.22 in May making it the lowest month’s spend since the Leisure Tracker began in August 2013.

Steve Jebson, commercial director at Greene King, said: “The latest figures on consumer confidence have shown that, while people are feeling more confident about an improving economy, on a personal level they are still feeling cautious about their own financial situation. However, we anticipate that July’s figures are likely to recover, as the weather has generally improved and there are less sporting events on TV.”

Eating out took the greatest share of the total spend (40%) with households spending an average of £71.82 on dining out which is up by 5% on the previous month but remains below long-term average for the sector.

The amount spent on ‘other leisure’ such as bowling, live events and theatre fell by 15% to £68.27, which was its smallest share of the spending sector at 38% that is attributed to people choosing to watch the football tournament at home.

Drinking out​

Money spent on drinking out fell by £3 per household in June to £40.19, which equates to a 7% decrease compared to May. Within London and the southeast the fall on drinking out spend was more pronounced than the rest of the country at £6 compared to a £2 fall for the rest of the nation.

However the regional figures for spending on other leisure activities were in reverse with households in London and the southeast maintaining a higher spend over the past three months compared to the rest of the UK that has seen spending fall and cut back £17 in June from May.

This reduced spent was seen by households with and without children as the World Cup and other sporting events encourage people to watch more TV.