London businesses facing a sales slump due to the cost-of-living crisis are urging the UK government to relax Sunday trading restrictions in the capital. The Knightsbridge Partnership Business Improvement District (BID) believes longer opening hours would generate £300m ($390m) p.a. and create 2,000 jobs. Liberal Democrat members of the London Assembly say that it would also increase tourism and employment.
The UK government has stated that there are no plans to modify the rules, which date back to the fifteenth century, when Sunday was a religious day of rest. Although the 1994 Sunday Trading Act allowed smaller stores to open whenever they choose on Sundays, larger shops of over 3,000 sq ft (280 sq m) still face a restriction of six hours.
The Knightsbridge Partnership BID estimate that visitors to Harrods are frequently turned away on Sunday evenings. The situation means that London is lagging behind cities such as Paris where Sunday trading laws have been relaxed recently and New York, which never had such restrictions.
However, small business owners are concerned about the likely impact of longer opening hours on Sundays. For example, Chandra Goyal, owner of the Central Food and Wine Shop in Soho, suggested that competition with larger stores could negatively impact small businesses. Ellie Reeves, Labour MP for Lewisham West and Penge reinforced the need for caution to ensure that any changes put in place safeguard the work-life balance of staff.
Conservative MP from Bromley and Chislehurst, Sir Bob Neill, said that the law needed updating to suit modern lifestyles but proposed a pilot scheme for trial in certain locations or at peak holiday times. Any change would also have to ensure that shops and workers were not burdened, he added
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