South Holland District Council leader Gary Porter is one of 150 top councillors nationwide calling for the Prime Minister to press ahead with plans to update the Sunday trading laws.
A letter also signed by 40 MPs, which was published in The Telegraph, calls on David Cameron to allow local councils to decide upon shop opening hours.
It reads: “We support the Government’s plans to devolve Sunday trading laws to local councils. The world has changed a great deal since Sunday trading laws were last updated in 1994.
“Nowadays people rightly expect greater flexibility in all aspects of their lives, and being able to shop when it’s convenient is one such freedom. Our high streets have been left trying to compete with 24/7 online shopping.
“Today the British Infrastructure Group of MPs (BIG) has issued a report backing the modernisation of Britain’s outdated retail law. The report notes that updated trading laws could also provide economic benefits worth £1.4 billion a year to the overall UK economy and £64 to each family.
“The trend across Europe is for liberalising Sunday trading laws. A comparison of European countries where trading laws had been relaxed or removed found that the changes resulted in a 7-9 per cent net increase in employment.
“We believe that the best way to determine whether large shops should open for longer than six hours on a Sunday in Britain is to hand this decision to local communities.”
