
Chancellor George Osborne announced in his Summer Budget that he would be giving elected mayors and councils the power to grant longer opening hours on Sundays.
He said: ?Even two decades on from the introduction of the Sunday Trading Act, it is clear that there is still a growing appetite for shopping on a Sunday. There is some evidence that transactions for Sunday shopping are actually growing faster than those for Saturday. ?The rise of online shopping, which people can do round the clock, also means more retailers want to be able to compete by opening for longer at the weekend. But this won?t be right for every area, so I want to devolve the power to make this decision to mayors and local authorities.” The existing Sunday trading laws were introduced more than 20 years ago before high-street shops faced competition from online retailers. The law currently prevents large stores from opening for more than six hours. Small shops covering less than 3,000?sq ft?can open all day. The Treasury has suggested that the change, leading to two extra hours of Sunday trading, could create 3,000 jobs in London and generate a further ?200m in sales. Read more about the high street:- Reports of the death of the high street are highly exaggerated
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