Pub boss sees public places smoking ban

THE boss of Britain's biggest pub chain believes that smoking will be banned in all public places within the next few years rather than just from pubs serving food as the Government plans now.

Ted Tuppen, chief executive of Enterprise Inns which has 8,644 pubs across the country, said: 'Following the change of Minister at the Department of Health [from John Reid to Patricia Hewitt], it would be sensible for the industry to consider it more likely that there will be a total ban within three or four years. We are certainly working towards that position.'

Tuppen had good news for shareholders with a 56% increase in the company's interim dividend to 5.6p a share, slightly higher than the rise in earnings by 52% to 29.6p a share. Profits rose by 53% to £143.6m on sales up from £240m to £454m.

While much of the improvement came from last year's £2.2bn acquisition of Unique Pub Company, Tuppen said like-for-like growth had been 9%, split equally between organic growth, refurbishment and upgrading the estate and from synergies such as better buying power.

The consumer downturn reported from the High Street is not hitting pubs, he claimed. 'In some senses we may gain where people decide rather than an expensive night in a restaurant to have a cheaper, good-quality meal in a pub.

'But really our business is 99% to do with the quality of the pub and 1% to do with the economy. You may put off buying the fridge but you don't stop going down the pub.'