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Sunday Trading (Horticulture) Bill [HL]

My Lords, I beg to move that this Bill be now read a second time. In doing so, I declare a number of interests. I am a landscape contractor, a member of the Royal Horticultural Society and a member of the All-Party Group on Horticulture and Gardening. The issue of extending the hours of opening for large garden centres was last considered in Parliament in 1994 during the passage of the Sunday Trading Bill, where an amendment proposing that large garden centres should be exempt from closing on Easter Sunday was defeated on a free vote, as a number of noble Lords will remember. This was followed by a review from the then Department of Trade and Industry which started in 2006 and consulted widely on the broader principle of deregulating Sunday trading hours across the whole sector of large retail shops. The conclusion of the review was announced on 6 July 2007 and stated that there was to be no change in the Sunday Trading Act 1994. However, when the Department of Trade and Industry reviewed the issue it looked at large retail shops as a whole. I instead ask noble Lords to consider the issue relating specifically to large garden centres, not linked to other large retail shops. I ask this as garden centres exhibit different characteristics to other large retail outlets and fit equally within the leisure industry as within the retail industry. In the 1994 Act large garden centres fall under the definition and categorisation of large shops. This definition equates to an internal trading floor area of more than 280 square metres. The Act therefore limits the Sunday opening hours of these large shops to a maximum of six continuous hours between 10 am and 6 pm. It also prevents large shops—and, within that definition, large garden centres—from opening at all on Easter Sunday. In addition, all large retail units will continue to be subject to the Christmas Day Trading Act 2004, which prevents them opening at all on Christmas Day, an issue that this Bill will not address. Under the current legislation a significant proportion of garden centres fall into the large-shop category purely because of the nature of the products they stock. There is little need to describe how display space for plants, shrubs and even small trees takes up a considerable floor space. Without doubt, products sold in garden centres tend to be larger than other fast-moving consumer goods to be predominantly found in other large retail units. Of course, there are other considerations: stock such as plants has special requirements that other retailers’ stock does not—for example, access to light and water to keep it alive—and that is before any thought has gone into how to make stock easily accessible to customers for purchasing, with many garden centres, in particular, keen to ensure that access is possible for the elderly and those who suffer a disability. The very nature of garden-centre products leads me to believe that garden centres are unlikely to be competitors for neighbouring shops and other small retail businesses. Indeed, since 1994 when the Act was passed and during last year’s Department of Trade and Industry review, the Horticultural Trades Association did not receive notification from any small business or body representing small businesses regarding any concern about a negative impact on trade from extending the opening hours only for garden centres. The need for large floor-space is further evidence that garden centres are no threat to other small businesses, their location often being remote in comparison to centres of population. In many cases, their only retail competition would be the local garage shop, which could only view visitors to garden centres as providing complementary trade as opposed to competitive trade. As a consequence of gardening being one of the most popular activities in the United Kingdom, demand for garden centres is high. Indeed, the Horticultural Trades Association’s The Great British Gardener report published earlier this week tells us that an estimated 81 per cent of the UK population over 15 claim to have access to space to grow plants, while 73 per cent of the population say they have access to a garden. Thus driven by this country’s love affair with gardening, demand for the products and services provided by garden centres is continually high. However, the majority of sales are made during the period between early spring and early summer. As a consequence, it is this period when garden centres generate the majority of their sales for the year, estimated at about 60 per cent of total annual turnover. Any closure or loss of sales during that period can have a damaging effect on turnover and subsequent profits. It is estimated by the Horticultural Trades Association that sales are reduced by as much as £90 million because of the current restrictions in the 1994 Act. Anything which can give garden centres more sales time during that period would significantly boost turnover and provide job security for those working in garden centres, especially in the face of stiff competition from the large supermarkets, which are beginning to show signs of moving into the UK plant-sales sector. Such an increase in demand during this period can lead to consumer dissatisfaction, especially given today’s hectic lifestyle, which means that the time available to gardeners to shop for plants can be limited to a brief period at the weekend. The six-hour period on a Sunday when garden centres can open limits this further and can mean families and gardeners diverting their attention away from something which can have large and positive benefits in supporting a healthy lifestyle and bring positive environmental benefits as well. The Bill inserts relevant paragraphs into the Act which create the machinery for local authorities to set extended Sunday trading periods by resolution. The 1994 Act defines a local authority as a district or unitary authority. Therefore, where an authority has executive arrangements such as a Cabinet or an elected mayor, a new paragraph in the Bill will require a resolution to be considered by the whole authority, not just the executive. This will mean that broad consensus at a local level will need to exist before garden centres receive the power to extend trading for even short periods. That will assimilate the exercise of this power to other significant local authority powers; for example, the power to make by-laws. Allowing local authorities to make this judgment, potentially following an application from a garden centre for the right to trade for a greater number of hours on a Sunday for a limited period, will mean that decisions about access to garden centres will be made close to the communities they affect by local councillors with detailed local knowledge of their areas. It will be difficult for large retail centres to hoodwink local councillors, who will probably use these very same garden centres themselves, about their being wholly or mainly retailers of horticultural supplies when they are not. This will also give local people an opportunity to have their views heard about the potential extension of trading hours for garden centres serving their communities. The Bill will extend to England and Wales and has the potential to allow Sunday opening similar to that already enjoyed in Scotland. We have considered the concerns of trade unions such as Usdaw about the impact on families of any increase in retail opening on a Sunday, and suggest that, within the limited extensions that the Bill seeks to provide, any impact is expected to be minimal. If staff come in for six hours then their Sunday has already been interrupted, and I expect that their staying on for an extra two hours will possibly give them additional flexibility during the rest of the week. We will of course be prepared to engage in more formal discussions with Usdaw and other interested parties as the Bill progresses. Any worry that the Bill would be used to extend opening hours outside garden centres can be allayed by Clause 1(2), which inserts into the 1994 Act a new definition of ““garden centre”” as, "““a large shop where the trade or business carried on consists wholly or mainly of the retail sale of horticultural supplies””." That definition is inserted to ensure that the Bill is strictly limited to garden centres and is not available to other retailers. That brings me on to the issue of Easter Sunday opening. Noble Lords are no doubt aware that in most years Easter Sunday will fall in the middle of the peak period of garden-centre activity, thereby possibly reducing the selling days available to garden centres during that period of high demand. I understand the concerns about keeping Easter Sunday special, and we would be prepared to follow noble Lords on this issue and to discuss it further. As it stands, the Bill would amend the Act to ensure that this decision fell within the responsibilities of the local authority, as I outlined earlier. I suggest that this approach would suffice, but I am keen to hear from other noble Lords on this point—which I am sure I will. In addition to the sale of horticultural supplies, many centres also offer well used café facilities and free expert advice pertaining to garden design and upkeep, and showcase the best practice in gardening techniques. That means that an outing to the garden centre becomes not just a visit to stock up on horticultural supplies but a full-blown leisure activity, nurturing and encouraging participation in the nation’s favourite pastime, with millions of practitioners. I therefore ask noble Lords to consider the Bill as relating in part to leisure activities and not purely to retail services, as was considered by the 1994 Act. It is in that vein of thinking that I ask noble Lords to give the Bill a Second Reading. Moved, That the Bill be now read a second time.—(The Earl of Courtown.)