Research by the New West End Company – which represents retail businesses employing around 100,000 staff around around London’s Oxford Street – has suggested that just two additional hours of Sunday trading could generate almost 3,000 jobs in the capital alone.
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“It’s a sign of desperation that the Chancellor is trying to strengthen growth through shopping instead of manufacturing. We do not have any plans to change our current position”.
Most leading supermarkets and department stores open on a Sunday while some allow customers in up to an hour earlier to browse.
Campaigns to scrap Sunday trading laws have fallen at various hurdles until now, when Chancellor George Osborne is expected to ram his plans home. According to the ACS, the trial during the Games in 2012 saw overall sales for small shops fall 0.4%. Of those who are in favour of change, 60% called for greater restrictions on trading hours.
Andrew Davies-Land said: “If they want to I don’t see why not. Some people enjoy shopping – get over it!”
Chairman of the Warwickshire and Coventry Federation of Small Businesses (FSB), Ian O’Donnell, said he hoped the decision-makers would stop to think about the local impact.
“The government failed to make a coherent business case for the suspension and there is no evidence that it will boost the economy or tourism”.
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“We are of that generation where Sunday, truthfully, was the most miserable day of the week”, the 58-year-old minister told Today’s John Humphrys.
“It’s not something we’d have come up with ourselves, but now it’s happening it’s something we will want to consider and look at it in due course, we’d want to talk to Worcester BID and the LEP (Local Enterprise Partnership), who might give us a wider view on it”. “Goodness me, if that didn’t sum up a miserable Sunday”, she commented.
She warned that the UK’s cities risked being left behind as global rivals extended their trading hours.
“Changes to opening hours will no doubt have an effect on towns and villages across the district, but will have to be administered in a fair way when more details are revealed following the budget announcement”.
And could leaving it up to local authorities bring about its own problems?
Regardless, the Treasury sees the issue as one of worldwide competition, with Paris and New York benefitting from no restrictions on trading.
Mr Osborne would have to put the bill through parliament, where it is likely to face opposition from the Church of England.
“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”, he added. The Liberal Democrats, then part of the coalition government, opposed a permanent relaxation at the time, insisting that Sunday should remain special and that the compromise between consumers, traders, shop workers and the religious should be retained.
George Osborne is planning to devolve decisions on opening times to local authorities and mayors.
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“Thirdly, my chief concern is about the implications for employees who say they will not work on a Sunday because they wish to attend Christian worship”.
