His comments come after the Business Secretary yesterday announced the Government’s intention to table an amendment to the Enterprise Bill to devolve Sunday trading laws to local authorities and allowing councils to “zone” any relaxation. The changes will only apply to large stores because small stores (under 3,000 square feet) are unrestricted and already free to open as long as they like.
The Government has not yet published the detail of their proposals, however a BIS press release indicates that they will allow 306 different councils to change Sunday trading in their area.
John Hannett – Usdaw General Secretary says: “Although the Government hasn’t revealed the consultation responses, five months after it closed, I can assure them that devolving Sunday trading is not welcomed because it would create chaos in the retail sector, tying up business in red tape as they try to operate in over 300 different regulatory regimes across the country.
“The chaos is made much worse by allowing local authorities to create zones of different opening hours, which we predict will lead to legal challenges against councils as they discriminate against competing retailers based on where their shop is located. Different regulatory regimes across the country gives retailers yet another headache in an already difficult trading environment. MPs would be wise to reject this unpopular and unworkable devolution of trading hours.
“If the Government really wants to help retailers, they would cut overheads by reforming business rates, lower prices for customers by reducing VAT and help councils lower car parking charges for shoppers.
“The Sunday Trading Act is a great British compromise, which has worked well for over 20 years and gives everyone a little bit of what they want. Retailers can trade, customers can shop, staff can work; whilst Sunday remains a special day, different to other days, and shopworkers can spend some time with their family.”
Notes for editors:
Usdaw (Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers) is the UK's fourth biggest and the fastest growing trade union with over 440,000 members. Membership has increased by more than 17% in the last five years and by nearly a third in the last decade. Most Usdaw members work in the retail sector, but the Union also has many members in transport, distribution, food manufacturing, chemicals and other trades.
Usdaw survey of retail staff: http://www.usdaw.org.uk/CMSPages/GetFile.aspx?guid=e401039e-75f9-4675-8216-56fa579b65b0
The BIS Consultation closed on 16 September and applies to England and Wales: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/devolving-sunday-trading-rules
For Usdaw press releases visit: http://www.usdaw.org.uk/news and you can follow us on Twitter @UsdawUnion