It's the tenth anniversary of the smoking ban on Saturday.

This morning Forest published a new report, Road To Ruin? The impact of the smoking ban on pubs and personal choice.

You can read the full press release on the Forest website but here's a taste:

The smoking ban decimated England’s pubs and hurt local communities, according to a report published today.

New figures obtained by the smokers’ group Forest show there are 11,383 fewer pubs in England compared to 2006, a decline of 20.7 per cent since the smoking ban was introduced on 1st July 2007.

London alone has 2,034 fewer pubs than in 2006, North West England has lost 1,788, Yorkshire is down by 1,589 and the South East has a net loss of 1,013.

But the biggest decline in pub numbers has been in the Midlands where there are 2,560 fewer pubs than before the smoking ban, a drop of 23.7 per cent.

While the fall in the number of pubs is part of a long-term trend and is not solely down to the smoking ban, the report found there was a clear acceleration in pub closures after the ban was enforced, with pubs in poorer urban areas suffering most.

Road To Ruin? was written by Rob Lyons, former deputy editor of the online magazine Spiked. The figures on pub closures were obtained (at great expense!) from research specialists CGA Strategy who are a well respected name in the hospitality industry.

They represent net losses so the number of pub closures will actually be higher because new pubs have opened since 2007 but they are mostly the type of family-friendly establishments championed by the likes of Wetherspoon.

In addition the figures don't reflect the number of pubs that have adapted to the smoking ban by becoming pub restaurants. There are several in my area (and very nice they are too) but to call them pubs, in the traditional sense, is nonsense.

Truth is, the old style boozer is dying out fast. I've no problem with things evolving according to customer demand but the smoking ban had a brutal impact on many pubs, forcing those that were already struggling out of business.

Hardest hit were the urban, inner city pubs, many of which had no outdoor space so smokers were forced to stand outside on the street. A substantial number went out and never came back. Or, if they did, they stopped visiting their 'local' every day.

The Morning Advertiser, which covers the pub trade, published an interesting feature last week. The headline is indicative of where its sympathies now lie (A breath of fresh air: how the smoking ban has changed the pub trade) but at least it acknowledged the fall in numbers of what it calls the "pint-drinking, cigarette-smoking, male regular".

Beyond that however it's clear the trade has turned its back on its traditional customer base in favour of something very different – families with children, for example, hence the focus on food.

Again, I understand the need to evolve but I do think the pub trade is its own worst enemy. When we launched our campaign against the smoking ban in 2004 ('Fight The Ban: Fight For Choice') the support we got from the hospitality industry was laughably inadequate and although most trade bodies said they were opposed to a ban they weren't inclined to stick their hands in their pockets.

By failing to fight for separate smoking rooms and doing nothing to support our subsequent call to relax the regulations so pubs can provide more sheltered outdoor smoking areas, the industry gives the impression of not giving a damn about customers who want to smoke and drink.

There are exceptions of course and some publicans have gone to considerable lengths to accommodate smokers in greater comfort. Only last week, at the Forest boat party, I was shown a picture (by a publican) of a fantastic outdoor smoking 'room' he had erected in the garden of his rural country pub.

It looked magnificent but there aren't enough facilities like that. Worse, as soon as the sun comes out, anti-smokers who happily sit indoors most of the year wander out and demand that the outdoor area belongs exclusively to them too.

I'll post extracts from the report when I get a chance. In the meantime click here if you want to read the whole thing.

See: Cigarette ban killing off British pubs: 11,000 lost in 10 years (Daily Star).