Osborne's Budget to include extension of Sunday trading hours

Chancellor George Osborne is expected to announce in Wednesday's Budget that shops in England and Wales could be allowed to open for longer on Sundays.

Responsibility for Sunday trading will be handed to local towns and cities, in a move that is expected to boost local economic activity.

The proposal came after a study commissioned by the New West End Company suggested that two extra hours of Sunday trading could create 3,000 jobs in London and generate more than £200m a year in additional sales.

Osborne commented that there was some evidence that transactions for Sunday shopping were growing faster than those for Saturday, while adding that retailers wanted to be able to compete with the rise of online shopping by opening for longer.

Adrian Pepper, from the Open Sundays campaign group, welcomed the proposal, and pointed out that restricting Sunday opening hours “makes no sense”.

"The current Sunday trading laws do not preserve any valuable cultural aspects of our way of life. They just make life more inconvenient,” he said.

The proposal could face opposition by small shops, the Association of Convenience Stores said. Its chief executive James Lowman said that giving local authorities responsibility for setting Sunday trading hours could lead to "inconsistency and confusion" for businesses and shoppers.

"The short period of time that small stores are open while large stores are shut is a crucial advantage for convenience stores, most of which are owned by small businesses.

Liberalising Sunday trading hours would make some small stores unviable

"Liberalising Sunday trading hours would make some small stores unviable," he added.

The proposal, which will go out to consultation, is expected to be included in an Enterprise Bill in the autumn but will not be applied to Scotland, where trading laws are devolved to Holyrood.

Laith Khalaf, Senior Analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown commented that the real challenge is that consumers " aren’t suddenly going to start eating or drinking more just because their bigger stores are open on a Sunday."

Khalaf said that the plan to devolve decisions over opening times to local councils "opens up a game of postcode bingo for supermarkets and consumers."

"Indeed it may well end up turning the whole reform into a damp squib, which casts some doubt on the scale of the economic benefits which would follow. Councils will face opposition to extending opening hours from local shopkeepers, religious leaders and trade unions. On the other side of the scales is a disparate bunch of people who like the idea of more flexible shopping on a Sunday, but probably aren’t going to kick up a stink if it doesn’t materialise."

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