The latest Business Barometer from Close Invoice Finance, of merchant bank Close Brothers Group, reveals that just over half (55 per cent) of employers in the South West plan to close the office on April 29th compared to six out of ten employers in the North West.

At a UK-wide level, Scotland emerges as the most reluctant region to embrace the holiday, with only one in three SMEs willing to recognise it as such.

Legally, companies are under no obligation to give workers the extra day off. Almost two in five (38 per cent) of the 500-plus SMEs polled across the UK will open as usual.

Andrew Curry, local head of Close Invoice Finance says, ‘There is clearly an interesting North-South split but regional attitudes towards the wedding aside, most businesses are in a no-win situation.

‘At the moment companies are being forced to decide whether to give staff the holiday as a gesture of goodwill, and stand to lose a day’s work as a result, or run the risk of damaging morale by either opening as usual or taking the day out of workers’ holiday entitlement.’