Two thirds of British people want to shop when they want
64% of those surveyed supported full liberalisation of Sunday trading hours
Closures on Easter Sunday will cost the horticultural industry £12m this year
In the run up to Easter Sunday, a new poll suggests that reform of the Sunday Trading Act 1994, which restricts stores over 3,000 sq. ft. to opening for only 6 hours between 10am and 6pm only, is long overdue.
Recent comments from Philip Davies MP, Conservative Member of Parliament for Shipley, have brought the issue to the House of Commons the first time since the Sunday trading laws were suspended for the 2012 Olympic & Paralympic Games. In the run up to the Games, the Sunday Trading (London Olympic Games and Paralympic Games) Act 2012 was passed to relax Sunday trading laws for eight consecutive weeks, to maximise the economic benefits from visiting tourists; the temporary liberalisation showed a 3.2% increase in sales in September 2012, dropping to 1.6% in October once the Sunday trading laws were back in force.
A national survey by ComRes for Open Sundays revealed that, when asked to what extent the British people would support or oppose a permanent liberalisation of Sunday trading hours, 64% of respondents were in favour of a reform with a third (32%) of respondents strongly supporting the idea. Only 16% of those polled strongly opposed the concept of longer shopping hours on Sundays.Three quarters already shop at least once a month on a Sunday. Across the UK, 18-24 year olds are the most supportive of full liberalisation, with 77% of respondents in this age group behind the reform. The research was commissioned by Open Sundays, a new campaigning group which is working towards the liberalisation of the Sunday trading laws.
Recent research from the Horticultural Trades Association (HTA) also found that the closures on Easter Sunday cost the horticulture industry £12million a year, with losses from Sunday trading restrictions totalling £78million a year.
Mark Allatt, co-founder and director of Open Sundays, commented:
“The Sunday Trading Act is outdated and needs to go. We live in the 21st century and we should be free to shop when we want and where we want.. Online shopping has allowed us to shop whenever is most convenient for us; we can click and collect at 9am on a Sunday morning but can’t physically buy anything from the same shop until 10am – it doesn’t make any sense.”
Allatt continues:
“Sunday trading reform would be good for consumers, good for the High Street and good for shop workers who want the freedom to work at the weekends when they choose. If stores were to open later on a Sunday, then leisure industries like restaurants would follow suit as the town centres and high streets fill up again on a Sunday evening. This gives families and friends more time to go out together at the weekend, and fuels the economy. Those that work in retail would have the opportunity to work extra hours, whilst remaining fully protected by law from unfair dismissal and from being forced to work Sundays if they don’t want to.”