Open Sundays welcomes government proposal to suspend Sunday trading laws to help retailers recover from Covid-19 crash
The campaign group promoting greater liberalisation of the Sunday trading laws has welcomed proposed Government action to suspend the current Sunday trading restrictions for a year, as part of a broader package of deregulation to help retailers recover from the impact of Covid-19.
Mark Allatt, co-founder of the Open Sundays campaign, said:
“Longer Sunday opening hours have become part of the response for some large food stores during the Covid-19 crisis, but up until now there has been no change in the law. When the restrictions on social distancing are lifted, many people would see the reversion to strict observance of Sunday opening hours as reinforcing an absurd legal position. We therefore welcome the Government’s proposal to suspend the current archaic Sunday Trading laws for 12 months – and would urge the Government to make this suspension permanent.
“The post-COVID-19 economic revival will depend on as much facilitation of trade as possible. Alongside other measures to boost retail, the suspension of England & Wales’s Sunday laws would give people more choice, as well as giving our retailers shot in the arm they will need to lead the country out of recession.”
Adrian Pepper, co-founder of the Open Sundays campaign, added:
“The last time the restrictions on Sunday opening were lifted was in 2012 for the London Olympics, when Boris Johnson was Mayor of London. Back then, we saw year on year increases of 3.2% in retail sales, compared to a 1.6% increase in the following month when restrictions on Sundays came back into force. Outside London, sales increased by 6.2% during the period Sunday opening hours were extended. This measure will provide a much-needed economic boost.”
It was proposed in the July 2015 Budget that the Sunday trading laws in England & Wales might be relaxed and shops over 280 m2 (3,000 sq ft) be able to open longer. However, this proposal was defeated in the House of Commons in March 2016 following a rebellion by a handful of Conservative MPs in alliance with Labour and the Scottish Nationalist Party, despite Sunday trading being legal in Scotland for shops of all sizes.