Consumer choice drives shop hours
Sunday is now a busy shopping day. Ian Handford looks at how the law changed
WE have just had the 25th Anniversary of the Sunday Trading Act 1994, which built on legislation started by the Shops Act of 1950. But it was not until 1974 after the founding of the National Federation of Self Employed (NFSE) that small shops’ concerns were vigorously attacked.
In 1985 a community campaigning group titled “Keep Sunday Special” was set up by the Church and Trade Union movement, plus a few members of political parties, their aim – stopping any further deregulation, which might allow shops to open on Sundays. NFSE members meanwhile (now renamed Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) were campaigning across the UK on various business issues, including Sunday Trading Regulation. By 1993 we were in discussion with Government trying to get the Regulations revoked. As Policy Committee Chairman of the FSB I led the campaign highlighting the anomalies and inconsistencies of Sunday Trading legislation which was often misinterpreted by small retailers. Small shop owners were often confused about hours of opening, the number of hours staff could legally work and even the working day used by superstores plus in fact whether or not they were legally able to open on Bank Holidays.
During 1993/94 a survey of members of the FSB was undertaken only to discover the majority wanted was the trading laws made more transparent. In partnership with trade lobbyists and political organisations we then approached government to introduce “full scale deregulation of Sunday trading”
which to some extent was already operative in Scotland, although the right to refuse to work on Sundays did not become law until 2003. Shops in Scotland could open on any day of the week, for any hours and throughout the year.
The Shops Bill Act (1986) became law in August 1994 (25 years ago this month) and mirrored the laws in Scotland but restricted the opening hours of large stores whether in towns or on out-of-town retail parks. It would take twenty years before the issue of deregulation came to the House of Commons again, when in 2015 under the Coalition Government of David Cameron and Nick Clegg an attempt was made to introduce full blown deregulation but failed, this time due to the Scottish Nationalist Party voting against their Bill. That action denied shoppers of England and Wales getting what shoppers in Scotland had enjoyed for years.
Amendments to Sunday Trading legislation emerged in the Enterprise Act of 2016, although today restrictions still apply to multiple stores (3,000 square feet or over) as hours of opening are restricted, together with a plethora of new Employment Law Regulation, brought in to further protect the rights of employees. Small shops meanwhile could open on Sundays or any other day of the week, as the owner chose.
The campaign to protect the religious or cultural aspects of society during the last quarter of a century was always destined fail, as shoppers habits were constantly changing. Our parents may have quipped - “I am just popping down to the shops.” but this no longer applies, even though the first regulations were designed to protect anyone from being forced to work on Sunday, as it could damage family life. With the multiples becoming far more aggressive competitively, they even opened small stores like Tesco-Express or Tesco Metro, Sainsbury-Local, M&S Food and so on, which saw many more traditional shops closing. However, now new competition has arrived by the ever expanding Aldi, Lidl and the burgeoning growth of online shopping.
So what is the future for privately owned small traders? To some extent small food retail shops will always find a place in the local market, but general goods and services retailers, the future is becoming ever more difficult. Some employees do not wish to work on Sundays but many more who want to add to their hours will welcome full deregulation. For owners of small businesses choice is always key. The “Keep Sunday Special” campaigners have effectively lost the argument and Britons are, after all in the words of Napoleon “a nation of shopkeepers”. For those of us that chose deregulation decades ago, it seems we may have been right, so perhaps we should support the latest campaigners of the recent aptly named “Open Sundays”.
Ian L Handford is the chairman of Torbay Civic Society
Tomorrow: Police and Crime Commissioner Alison Hernandez with her latest blog