Moving towards a level playing field with Sunday Trading

Following the chancellor's budget statement yesterday, the Horticultural Trades Association (HTA) is delighted to hear that that there are moves afoot to relax the Sunday Trading Laws in order to allow all retail businesses, including garden centres, to trade on a level playing field

HTA CEO Carol Paris comments, "This could really benefit the horticultural sector as a whole and is one of the 'asks' of Government in the recently published industry wide 'Ornamentals Action Plan'. The HTA has been lobbying on Sunday Trading for over two decades now and we are delighted that at last moves are being taken to remove this outdated piece of legislation."

She adds, "This is all about choice - choice for the public to shop when they would like and choice for garden retailers to open when they like. With online trading allowing people to shop 24/7 it is ridiculous that someone can sit and eat in a garden centre restaurant (which are exempt from the law) on a Sunday and order garden product online but not actually purchase products instore. Gardening continues to be one of the nation's favourite pastimes and weekends are typically when more time is spent on doing outdoor projects and so a relaxation of the law will no doubt provide a welcome boost to trade."