Opposition to Sunday trading relaxations gets louder

With more voices from the independent retailing and wholesaling community joining the chorus, opposition to the government plans to relax Sunday trading laws is now getting louder.

Dawood Pervez, managing director of the Bestway Wholesale, and Stuart Reddish, national president of NFRN, are the latest to request the government to reconsider the proposals.

Pervez on Wednesday (17 June) wrote to Chancellor Rishi Sunak and Business Secretary Alok Sharma, spelling out his concerns on the impact of the measure on small convenience stores.

“Whilst speaking to my customers on the matter, who are close to their high streets, I have understood that extending Sunday trading will not help high streets at all. It will just mean shops incur more costs to keep open for longer while competing for inelastic consumer spend,” he wrote in the letter.

“We have seen that whenever extending Sunday trading hours has been debated, it has been shown that there’s no real economic argument for doing it. This hasn’t changed now,” he added.

Reddish, who owns Baxters convenience store and post office in Sheffield, made an impassioned plea to Prime Minister Boris Johnson to desist from giving Sundays to the supermarkets.

Speaking from his store in a video message, Reddish explained how the current Sundays had given independent retailers a “key advantage” over their multiple rivals.

People want their local stores to thrive, not to be overwhelmed by the supermarkets,” he added.

Allowing supermarkets to open for longer than the allotted six hours “would not increase business”, Reddish said. “It will just move it around, costing jobs, threatening businesses and damaging the high street.”

The Times has revealed the government plans to suspend Sunday trading laws for a year in measures to revive the economy from the coronavirus crisis.

Earlier, the government has confirmed that it was considering a review of the laws after several MPs called on Business Secretary Alok Sharma to suspend the law, which restricts large shops (over 280 square metres) from opening for sale to a maximum of six hours between 10am and 6pm.

There has been a cabinet backlash against the move, with three ministers warning the prime minister against it, according to the newspaper.

Some lawmakers have also written to the prime minister saying the move will attract opposition and raised concerns about legislation proposed as part of the government’s coronavirus recovery bill, The Times reported.

Earlier, several groups including the trade body Association of Convenience Stores, wholesale buying group Unitas and convenience retailer Spar, have come down against the government plans to relax Sunday trading laws.