The latest Greene King Leisure Spend Tracker showed the average British household spent £207 on leisure in September – a decrease of 6%, or £13, compared to last year.
The report shows a greater decline in London and the South East (where spend was down 10% or £27) than in the rest of the country, where spend dropped by 4% (£7).
The rise in eating out spend (up £5 per household to an average of £86.86) on last September, was driven by family households, who spent 29% more on the activity this year, according to the report’s authors.
Decline in drinking out
The decline in drinking out spend (down £3 per household to £45.59) is put down to a wider fall in alcohol and the report urges operators to drive more trade among young people, for whom declines in alcohol consumption are the sharpest. Drinking out fell more among households in London/South East than in the rest of the country, with declines of 15% (£8) and 1%(40p) respectively.
Steve Jebson, Greene King’s commercial director, said: “We have seen leisure spending dip in September compared to the same month last year, as most people are still not feeling better off as their costs continue to rise faster than their incomes, despite improvements in the economy. With the run up to Christmas, it will be interesting to see if consumers act more prudently next month.”
Treat
Commenting on the increase in eating out, Jebson added: “Even though households are still finding it tough, it is interesting to see the continued increase in spend on eating out, indicating it is becoming a more common activity and less of an occasional treat. We have also seen households allocate 5% more of their total leisure spend to eating out compared to this time last year, further highlighting its growing importance.”
Other leisure, which includes activities such as bowling, cinema-going and live events, showed the biggest drop of 18% year-on-year, due to warmer and drier weather giving people more reasons to spend time outside.