Nottingham pub owners fear a planned government smoking ban on outside areas will put their businesses “once again on the frontline” economically.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer today announced plans to prohibit smoking in places including pub gardens, restaurant terraces and outside clubs.
Sir Keir said “we have to take action” to reduce the pressure smoking puts on the NHS, with 80,000 people dying each year from it.
“The ban will hit every single pub,” said Jason Weston, landlord of Ye Olde Salutation Inn, on Hounds Gate in Nottingham.
“It will do the same thing to customer numbers that the original smoking ban did.”
He said the change will put pubs back “on the frontline” after an economic downturn and staffing shortages caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Pub closures quadrupled in the year following the 2007 smoking ban.
Mr Weston added: “The government is jumping too far – everyone’s aware that eventually they will eradicate smoking but you can’t do all of this in one go; it makes too many problems.”
The new scheme will not cover large open spaces such as parks or streets.
“If you suddenly make everywhere non-smoking all it will do is push people out into public areas to smoke,” Mr Weston said.
“That also means people are probably going to walk off with their glass, because they’re worried about them being spiked,” he added.
“Will pubs be punished for not keeping them inside? It will cause problems for us to try to enforce it and for the councils and the police.”
He fears the ban will threaten the jobs of the 470,000 pub and bar workers in the UK, in an industry he says is “already struggling across the board”.
The proposed plan has already received political criticism, with Reform UK leader Nigel Farage saying it would be “the end of pubs.”
Mr Weston believes creating larger non-smoking areas is a more realistic start to the government’s end goal. His establishment has four non-smoking tables outside.
He added: “They should make it so a percentage of the outdoor areas have to accommodate for people who don’t smoke, perhaps 50 per cent.
“That way people will stay in the areas they’re supposed to and we can police it.
“Hopefully the government will see that what they need to do it take smaller steps.”
However Ashely Song, a music artist from Nottingham, says the new plan doesn’t go far enough.
They said: “People shouldn’t be allowed to smoke in places where other people are non-smokers.
“It has a negative impact on health and nobody should be forced to breathe in other people’s smoke.”
The ban will also affect children’s playgrounds, outside sports stadiums and pavements by universities and hospitals. The prime minister has said further details will be revealed at a later date.
