It is being widely leaked that, in his budget speech to Parliament on Wednesday, the Chancellor will announce an emergency amendment to the Sunday Trading Act 1994, to last for one summer only.
This is being presented as a welcome chance for all those Olympic visitors to go shopping in the West End & thus give an extra boost to our ailing economy.
This move will also save a lot of red faces all round.
For, in January, a serious flaw was discovered in the draconian law which was passed in 2006 to meet the stringent advertising & trading requirements of the owners of the Olympic 'brand'
Nobody had realised that the super-size ‘retail opportunities’ within the precincts of the purpose-built stadium are covered by the provisions of the same 1994 law on Sunday trading as every other large store in the UK – allowed to open only for a maximum of 6 hours, between 10am & 6pm.
The closing ceremony takes place on a Sunday evening, after 7pm. So nobody present will be able to buy presents
Let us hope that the attempt to force this legislation through does not meet with the same embarrassing defeat as did the Thatcher government’s 1986 attempt to liberalise shopping hours.
The Games have so far also failed to deliver on another promise, according to a report from Hometrack: houses in the area are still selling at prices 1/3 below the average for the rest of London.
We should not take this too much to heart – I suspect that even those who are attracted by a move to the regenerated area are holding off until after the disruption of construction & the influx of so may visitors.
And anyway, we should rejoice that housing in one part of London remains (relatively) affordable. The average home on the other side of the city, in Kensington & Chelsea, will now set you back a cool £2 million, according to another report today, this one from Rightmove.
