With the MPs returning to Westminster this week, political life in the UK will restart in earnest. The new government has set out much of its agenda for the first couple of years, and this includes new legislation (for England and Wales) to devolve Sunday trading regulation to local authorities.
Needless to say, this could have a huge effect on thousands of small store retail businesses, as well as the general balance between high street and out-of-town shopping areas.
The slim evidence available so far indicates that the public are not hugely bothered about changes to the current regime. However, the fact remains that Sunday trading is on the political agenda, and once the official consultation concludes later this month MPs will most likely have an opportunity to vote on proposals that will shape the Sunday trading regime for years to come. So it’s to MPs that the fight must be taken.
Conservative MP David Burrowes has said he is against Sunday changes, and he won’t be the only one. After all, the Conservative government has only a slim majority and won’t want an early Commons defeat, so will be sensitive to any reservations that backbenchers have. So if you think that a liberalisation of Sunday trading in your area will adversely affect either your business or the community at large, let your MPs know. They might be more sympathetic than you think.
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