Supermarkets may have extended Sunday trading hours

Chancellor George Osborne has announced details about extended Sunday trading in his 2015 Budget, which may now see large supermarkets and other retailers remain open for longer.
Control over opening hours on Sundays will be handed over to local councils, who will decide on the times which big retailers, such as Tesco, Asda, Sainsburys and a Morrisons can remain open until.
The Sunday Trading Act introduced two decades ago meant that large retailers could only open for six hours on Sundays, but Osborne wants local areas to decide if their economy would benefit from extended trading hours, and if so, they may increase opening hours.
Online shopping has put pressure on high street stores, who want to be able to work longer hours to help compete with online retailers.
However, small firms may suffer from extended Sunday trading, as they could open longer than the main retailers under the Sunday Trading Act. The concerns are that the big firms will be able to receive a greater share of consumers’ expenditures over the weekends, which may result in some small firms closing.
John Allan, of the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB), said: “The FSB remains concerned about the impact of any change to Sunday trading rules on smaller retailers. As well as assessing the potential impact of these measures, the government should be taking a wider holistic view to see what else can be done to support these businesses.”