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Shops Could Be Open 24/7

Shops Could Be Open 24/7
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The Government has announced that up to Christmas, shops, including non essential ones, could be allowed so stay open 24/7. 

John Lewis, a popular high street store.

Currently, for a business to be allowed to stay open for hours other than 9am to 7pm, they must apply for permission from your local council.

But, due to Christmas being right around the corner and COVID-19 still being transmitted across the country, the Government is asking for local councils to temporarily scrap the process, which can take weeks to approve whether a business can open late or not.

Housing and Local Government Secretary Robert Jenrick has said he is happy for this to happen, but it’s down to local councils to decide now.

He said in a statement: “With these changes local shops can open longer, ensuring more pleasant and safer shopping with less pressure on public transport.

“How long will be a matter of choice for the shopkeepers and at the discretion of the council.

“But I suggest we offer these hard pressed entrepreneurs and businesses the greatest possible flexibility this festive season.

Therefore as Local Government Secretary I am relaxing planning restrictions and issuing an unambiguous request to councils to allow businesses to welcome us into their glowing stores late into the evening and beyond if wish.

“And those stores and supermarkets will be able to replenish their shelves whenever they wish, with flexible deliveries to keep the streets free for the rest of us when we are out and about.”

He continued: “In a year when government has necessarily interjected into our lives in ways none of us who value individual liberty would ever have imagined, these changes remind us that we can and must seek every way to reduce the burden of bureaucracy and free our small businesspeople to get on with earning a living and serving the public”.

These longer opening hours would not only give business’s a chance to potentially turn over more revenue, but because the shops are open longer, not everyone needs to go in at the same time, possibly cutting the spread of the virus.

The opening hours change, if officially applied, is set to run through Christmas, once the lockdown rules are lifted on the 2nd, and through January too.

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