Brits are desperate for new Bank Holiday - here's why Starmer and Reeves won't give us one

For once, the weather is behind us, with the temperature forecast to hit 30C. But not everybody loves Bank Holidays. Many consider them more stressful than spending Monday at work.

The nation's shared memories revolve around traffic jams on the M6, screaming children in the back seat, jam-packed seaside promenades if the sun shows its face, sodden trips home if it doesn't. Others stay put, only to end up cursing flatpack furniture or knocking down the wrong wall in a fit of DIY optimism.

Despite all this, calls for new bank holidays come thick and fast. Lately, campaigners have demanded days off for St George's Day,VE Day and, most recently, the Lionesses' victory in the Euros.

The 1970s was a bumper time for new bank holidays. The spring bank holiday was created in 1971, with New Year's Day confirmed in 1974 and May Day in 1978.

More recent UK-wide additions have been fleeting: the late Queen's Platinum Jubilee in June 2022, her funeral that September, and King Charles's Coronation in May 2023.

Each time the nation downed tools, the question of a permanent new bank holiday reared its head again.

In 2022, business leaders urged Boris Johnson to make the jubilee holiday permanent, proposing a "thank holiday" to honour public services and spur post-pandemic recovery. The CBI, UKHospitality, Siemens and even the Campaign for Real Ale signed up. The idea fizzled out, but the appetite remained.

Now here's something to cloud the skies. It's unlikely that PM Keir Starmer or Chancellor Rachel Reeves are going to grant us another one.

Brits get relatively few breaks compared with others. We once had 33 public holidays, primarily consisting of saints' days and religious festivals. That was slashed to just four in 1834, courtesy of those hard-working Victorians.

Today England and Wales get eight, Scotland nine and Northern Ireland 10. That's meagre by continental standards. The EU average is about 12.3, Slovakia and Finland notch up 15, while Japan and South Korea enjoy 16.

The trade unions aren't happy. The TUC brands our entitlement "stingy" and wants four more bank holidays to bring us in line with our EU neighbours.

The Government sees things differently. In 2022, the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport put the price of an additional day off at £2.4billion. That's the figure ministers reach for whenever the subject comes up.

Yet when accountancy group PwC did some sums, it put the likely cost at closer to £831million. Schedule a new holiday on a Friday, when fewer hours are worked anyway, and the impact could be smaller still, it said.

PwC argued ministers ignored the positives: a long weekend can lift morale, boost productivity in the weeks that follow and drive custom into high streets and tourist spots.

The Centre for Economics and Business Research calculates that around 15% of the economy does well, such as shops, pubs, restaurants and visitor attractions, while 45% suffers: offices, factories and building sites.

So what about going the other way and abolishing all bank holidays? The CEBR calculated back in 2012 that this could boost output by £19billion a year. And there are two people who might like the sound of that: Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves.

A further dip in the economic output following an extra bank holiday or two is the last thing they need as the economy struggles.

The economy grew at just 0.3% in the second quarter of this year, and Reeves won't want to see that narrow.

Giving the nation a day off does not exactly scream productivity. Businesses are already absorbing higher national insurance bills courtesy of her autumn Budget, plus some of the highest energy costs in the world.

Angela Rayner's Employment Rights Bill is set to add another £5billion to corporate bills, with new restrictions on zero-hours contracts and "fire and rehire" tactics, plus stronger maternity and family rights. In fact, the only thing she isn't offering is an extra bank holiday.

When it was rumoured earlier this year that a special holiday might mark the 80th anniversary of VE Day on May 8, No10 swiftly shot the idea down.

Yet hospitality bosses say the Government had turned its back on pubs, bars and restaurants at a time when they need every pint pulled and every table booked.

Ash Corbett-Collins, chairman of real ale group Camra, believes bank holidays are a golden opportunity to support your local, with hundreds closing this year. "Bank holidays mean fuller tills and busier bars. It will also help a vital social hub that supports wellbeing and keeps communities thriving."

Kate Nicholls, chair of UKHOSPITALITY, says bank holidays can boost hospitality businesses, domestic tourism and local economies.

"The sector is currently struggling with increasing costs at every turn, so bank holidays and other times of high demand have even greater importance as a potential and much-needed boost in sales."

Sarah Coles, head of personal finance at Hargreaves Lansdown, says holidays bring a feelgood factor, but this is not enough to outweigh the losses.

"When a big chunk of the country has the day off, workplaces close, schools shut and even those whose businesses are open may need to take the day off to look after children."

Danni Hewson, head of financial analysis at AJ Bell, notes that one-off bank holidays in 2022, for the Queen's jubilee on February 6 and funeral on September 19, were viewed as major contributors to outsized falls in monthly GDP, as production lines pause and building sites go quiet. She adds: "Even if parts of the service sector may get a boost, it's often short-lived and can actually skew spending for the rest of the month."

Coronation celebrations on May 6, 2023, hit that month's growth figure. So even though the nation may be crying out for a bank holiday, the Government is unlikely to listen, adds Hewson.

"With many employers already struggling with increased labour costs, pushing the impact of an extra holiday on them would be a tough sell," she says.

A YouGov poll found more than a third of Brits want more bank holidays. We may grumble about the traffic, the weather and the crowds, but we still pile into pubs, seaside towns, DIY chains and garden centres when they come around.

Some even argue for a more flexible option, where workers could pick their own personal "bank holiday". That might suit employers, but it defeats the point. The magic of these days is that the country pauses together. Shared rituals are rare, and even if we only share the national pastime of moaning about the weather, that's still something.

But the benefits for staff are not clear-cut, argues Alan Price, chief executive of Bright HR, who says many feel under pressure to squeeze five days' work into four.

"Adding extra bank holidays is not the only way to help staff recharge," he says. "Many firms already offer additional wellbeing days, which employees can take when it suits them."

So, where does that leave us? The public wants more days off. Hospitality and retail are crying out for them. Economists can see both the benefits and the costs. But the Government, especially a Labour one struggling to revive the economy, has little appetite to deliver.

Which means that for now, an extra bank holiday or two is off the table. The tradition of national grumbling will continue. And even if Labour did grant us an extra day off, one thing would be certain: it would rain.