Stay open all hours: Chancellor’s Sunday trading revolution
He’ll give towns the right to scrap restrictions
SUNDAY trading restrictions could be axed under plans to be announced by George Osborne in tomorrow’s Budget.
The Chancellor wants to hand power to councils and elected mayors to scrap some or all of the rules governing the opening hours of larger stores on Sundays.
The move will be welcomed by many supermarkets, garden centres and other large retailers, who have warned for years that the restrictions from 1994 are out of date and unfair.
But it will put the Chancellor on a collision course with church groups and trade unions who want Sunday to be treated as a special day.
It could also raise embarrassing questions for David Cameron, who said in April the Government had ‘no current plans to relax Sunday trading laws’.
At the moment, large stores can only open for six hours between 10am and 6pm on Sundays, while shops with a floor area of less than 3,000 square feet can open all day.
Mr Osborne said last night that changes in shopping pat- terns meant it was time to look at the restrictions again, adding: ‘Two decades on from the introduction of the Sunday Trading Act, it is clear that there is still a growing appetite for shopping on a Sunday.
‘There is some evidence that transactions for Sunday shopping are actually growing faster than those for Saturday.
‘The rise of online shopping, which people can do round the clock, also means more retailers want to be able to compete by opening for longer at the weekend. But this won’t be right for every area, so I want to devolve the power to make this decision to mayors and local authorities.’
Mr Osborne said this would let towns and cities ‘determine their own futures’. The Treas- ury is expected to consult on whether to devolve power over Sunday trading laws to elected mayors, or whether all local authorities should be included.
Asda boss Andy Clarke said in February that the existing laws were ‘ fundamentally wrong’ because those who wanted to shop at other times had to pay more for their food.
He also said it made no sense to restrict opening hours when consumers could shop online at any time of the day or night.
He added: ‘That, for me, is an example of “rip-off Britain”.’
Online shopping accounts for 11 per cent of all retail sales, rising to 17 per cent in the runup to Christmas.
One study claimed extending Sunday opening by two hours in central London would create 3,000 jobs and generate £200million for the economy.
But former Sainsbury’s boss Justin King said last year he opposed the move, adding: ‘Customers aren’t asking for it.’
Attempts to remove restrictions on Sunday trading led to bitter disputes in the Eighties and were abandoned after the Shops Bill was defeated in the Commons in 1986.
A compromise deal was finally agreed in 1994.
The rules were lifted for eight weeks during the Olympics and Paralympics in 2012, resulting in a ‘significant surge in sales’.
But when the Keep Sunday Special group wrote to Mr Cameron before the election asking him to rule out a change in the law, his office said he believed the existing system provided ‘a reasonable balance’.