Shop ’til you drop: High street stores to stay open until 10pm after lockdown
High street stores will be allowed to stay open until 10pm when they reopen next month.
Non-essential retailers should be given the opportunity to extend opening hours to trade between 7am and 10pm every day except for Sunday, the government has said.
The extension is intended to help reduce footfall, ease transport pressures and make social distancing while shopping easier when high street stores reopen from 12 April.
In a written ministerial statement, Robert Jenrick, the secretary of state for housing, communities and local government, said councils should “not seek to undertake planning enforcement action which would result in the unnecessary restriction of retail hours”.
Local planning authorities have also been told to highlight the temporary relaxation to retailers in their area “so that they can take advantage of longer opening hours if they wish to do so”.
“The government would like local planning authorities to continue to take a positive and flexible approach to planning enforcement action to support economic recovery and support social distancing while it remains in place,” Jenrick said.
“The National Planning Policy Framework already emphasises that planning enforcement is a discretionary activity, and local planning authorities should act proportionately in responding to suspected breaches of planning control.”