Give the people what they want – the ability to shop all day, every day

Allister Heath
08 Apr 2014
The Telegraph UK
Abolishing Sunday trading laws in today’s 24/7 digital world is a no-brainer for the Coalition
It’s time for the Coalition to allow consenting adults to shop freely on Sundays. It is ridiculous, at a time of 24/7 online shopping and late-night weekend home deliveries, that the state still restricts the opening hours of all but the smallest of stores in most of the UK.
Ending the unpleasant absurdity that is Sunday chucking-out time in our supermarkets and shopping centres is a policy that ought to tick all the right boxes for the Coalition. It would be hugely popular across all demographic groups, could be implemented quickly and would create tens of thousands of jobs, including in the more depressed regions. It would also do wonders for the Government’s image: shopping, loved by millions but hated by snobs, would no longer be officially discouraged.
Philip Davies, the Tory MP for Shipley, is to be congratulated for forcing the idea back on to the agenda again. He is seeking to table an amendment to the Deregulation Bill to repeal the current archaic rules – the Government would be wise to embrace his suggestion. George Osborne, the Chancellor, is still reaping extraordinary political rewards for dramatically deregulating the pensions market, abolishing the tax penalties that effectively forced everyone to buy a costly annuity – the Coalition would stand to benefit even more from this far simpler liberalisation. Most supply-side reforms are tough, but not this one. It’s a no-brainer, far more so in today’s flexible, digital age than it was 20 years ago, the last time this issue was properly debated.
Since 1994, while small stores in England and Wales have been able to open freely, shops that are more than 280 square metres in size have been allowed to trade only for six consecutive hours between 10am and 6pm on Sundays. There are, as ever, some exceptions, including outlets at petrol stations and airports, but the law is otherwise pretty restrictive.
The outcome was a compromise between free-marketeers, who wanted to repeal all regulatory restraints, and the well-organised campaign to “keep Sundays special”, backed by the Church of England and various other vocal groups. The situation is even worse in Northern Ireland, following a 1997 Order, with large superstores opening for just five hours from 1pm to 6pm, a tough rule imposed specifically to protect church services.
Yet if you live in Scotland, you will be wondering what all the fuss is about: supermarkets are free to trade as they please. The result is that many large shops open 24/7, and the moral order hasn’t collapsed. Many of the Scottish government’s other economic and social policies are highly questionable, but its enlightened attitude to individual liberty is spot-on in this instance, and should immediately be copied by the rest of the UK.
Christians for whom working on the Sabbath is unacceptable should have the right to opt out, as they do in Scotland, and some retailers would undoubtedly choose to limit their opening times or even stay shut. But it should be their decision, not that of politicians or busybodies.
Worried Christians should look to the US, that most religious of Western nations: the fact that shops over there have long been open on Sundays hasn’t prevented churches from flourishing. There are many reasons for the long and dramatic decline of religious observance in the UK – liberalising Sunday trading rules won’t make any difference. In fact, religious folk who care about the plight of the poor and unemployed should welcome any reform that boosts their opportunities and income.
There have been a number of economic studies in Britain and overseas on the impact of allowing shops and their customers the freedom to trade as and when they please. Without exception, each has shown that large net economic benefits would stem from deregulation. One especially interesting analysis, commissioned by the Department for Business during the Labour years, argued convincingly that full liberalisation would deliver a net benefit of £20.3bn, with the extra jobs and enhanced convenience easily trumping costs such as additional traffic and some casualties among smaller stores. The report found that the net benefits of a proposal such as Davies’ would be worth £1.4bn per year over the next two decades, equivalent to £64.10 per family every year. In economic terms, these would be huge gains; they are low-hanging fruit that any sensible government ought to pick.
The Coalition missed a big opportunity during the Olympics: the law was temporarily relaxed for a few weeks with great success, allowing employees to earn more at a time of severe austerity, giving consumers more flexibility and reducing traffic congestion by allowing shoppers to spread their travelling times. But whereas the changes should have been made permanent at the time, the arguments for complete liberalisation are even more powerful today.
Britain’s society and labour market have changed dramatically in recent years: self-employment has risen substantially, and accounts for a much higher proportion of the workforce than in Germany, France, Japan or America. More people now work from home or at the weekend; irregular hours are increasingly common. There has been an increase in members of religious minorities for whom Sunday is not a day of rest. Combined with the continuing rise in two-earner households, artificially restricting shopping hours makes no sense.
Liberalising hours would also help to redress the balance between online firms, such as Amazon or Ocado – open at all times – and more traditional players. Consumers are rightly allowed to take delivery of their groceries all day on Sundays; yet they cannot physically pick up their own shopping, apart from during a narrow and rushed window. Some bricks and mortar retailers are seeking to transform themselves into leisure destinations to differentiate themselves from their digital rivals; yet introducing restaurants and even gyms into superstores is of limited use if they have to remain closed for a vast chunk of the weekend.
Not all retailers support full liberalisation, of course – they know that they will have to employ more staff and work even harder to compete. Successful incumbents never like change – capitalists often don’t back truly free markets. Supporters of an extension to opening hours tend to be the hungriest, most ambitious companies, or those most needing to fight back against their competitors – they are the ones the Government should listen to.
Longer hours would also help to attract more spending from tourists. London is already the world capital of shopping: its retail sales are the highest of any city, according to the most recent Centre for Retail Research league table. More is spent in London’s shops than in New York’s or Tokyo’s, with sales of fashion and non-food items especially buoyant.
The case for repealing the obsolete restrictions on Sunday shopping that still constrain 93pc of the UK’s consumers has never been stronger. This is a great opportunity for the Coalition to act: it should ignore the doomsayers and trust the people.
Allister Heath is editor of City AM