Scrapping bank holidays would boost annual output in the UK by £19 billion, says the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR). The CEBR wants these holidays to be more spread out over the year to stop businesses “losing momentum”. CEBR founder Douglas McWilliams told the BBC: “About 45 per cent of the economy suffers; the offices, the factories, the building sites where people tend not to go to work on bank holiday.”