The consumer confidence index increased by 3.1 points to 113.6 during the last month, the highest level recorded by YouGov since May 2016.

A score higher than 100 suggests more consumers are confident than not.

The index is based on consumer confidence data collected from 6,000 monthly online interviews with UK respondents, including questions on household finances, property prices, job security and the level of business activity at their workplace over the past 30 days and the next 12 months.

Fieldwork for the most recent research was conducted between 1^st May-31^st May.

The index found that people’s confidence about their personal finances had improved by 2.7 points in the past month.

The outlook among workers for how secure their employment will be in the coming year saw the largest increase in confidence, rising by 5.1 points to 118.9.

The number of workers feeling that their job became more secure in the past month also increased, improving by 2.9 points.

Kay Neufeld, head of forecasting and thought leadership at the Centre for Economics and Business Research, said: “The YouGov/Cebr Consumer Confidence Index points to another strong increase in sentiment in May as people flocked to pubs and restaurants following the lifting of some restrictions on indoor socialising.

“As the economic recovery gathers pace, labour shortages have come into focus as evidenced by further strong increases in both the backward and forward-looking job security measures. While overwhelmingly positive, the latest consumer confidence figures show that business activity in the workplace has edged up only marginally compared to the previous reading, suggesting that firms could be struggling to ramp up production in line with surging consumer demand.”