Should the States step in to save our shopping?

But it is at risk of becoming a ‘States reform’ issue if we aren’t careful. And by that I mean a ‘boy who cried wolf’ scenario where it goes on that long and the arguments are rehearsed so many times over that everyone stops listening, and caring, altogether.

The Jersey Consumer Council is the latest group to call for all shops to be able to trade on Sundays. They have proposed a two-year trial to see how it goes.

Economic Development Minister Alan Maclean has also revealed that a retail working party is currently working on the issue as part of a wider discussion about the industry and is also considering recommending such a trial. The group is due to report back to the minister next month and Senator Maclean says he is ‘open’ to the idea.

The call has led to the same feedback from interested parties that there has in the past. The Dean of Jersey and Anglican Church are opposed to the idea and think that Sundays should be preserved as different to the rest of the week. The head of the Methodist Church in the Island, in contrast, thinks that other faith leaders are making a mountain out of a molehill. Retailers have mixed views and shoppers, generally speaking, appear to welcome the idea of being able to pop to the shops every day of the week but do not seem overly bothered either way.

At a recent breakfast debate, for example, the audience was asked to raise their hands if they were dead against Sunday trading. Not one hand went up. They were then asked if they would ‘probably go shopping on a Sunday if the shops were open’ and more or less every hand went up, albeit half-heartedly.

Currently, hundreds of shops are actually permitted to open on a Sunday because they are below the 700 square metre size limit. The truth is that few actually do open.

Even the bigger stores that are allowed to open for five Sundays a year at the permission of the parish Constable report that trade is usually pretty tough but could get better if it were a regular thing that shoppers were allowed to get used to.

There is, therefore, really only one move to be made if this debate is to be put to bed once and for all – let market forces decide.

The rules should be completely relaxed, albeit with caveats to protect workers and their rights, and those businesses that want to trade, regardless of their size, should be allowed to. Because then, and only then, will we know who is right in the ‘will it work, won’t it work’ debate.

If shoppers want it and can support the costs to businesses involved by spending more every week, Sunday trading will be here to stay. If, as I highly suspect would be the case, it is unsustainable then things will carry on as they always have, minus the waste of time and energy spent discussing the issue. There would, however, be the level playing field for all retailers that is currently missing.

Doing more to attract shoppers into town, both on a Sunday and generally, has also been floated as a way to help save the struggling high street.

Senator Maclean has suggested that the States, the parish and retailers could all put money into a pot to help pay for events and measures to make St Helier a destination where families want to visit for a day out, for example by organising fayres, markets, entertainment and one-off events.

But, again, it has to make commercial sense to do it. Or does it?

Let’s think this one through.

If market forces alone are left to dictate the future of the high street, there could well be no high street in Jersey in 20 years’ time. Islanders would cope to an extent, relying on the internet more and more, but we would suffer. The public purse would also feel the pinch from fewer taxes from local retailers and the parish would bring in far less in rates. It is in our interests to maintain a high street.

However, if the States spends a load of taxpayers’ money, or the parish the money of its ratepayers, to help attract shoppers into the town centre, that is, in effect, a subsidy for retailers.

For the UK-based companies that currently pay no tax under the zero-ten regime it would be an even bigger bonus.

In the same vein, the States subsidies farmers to the tune of thousands of pounds per cow each year. They do that to protect the dairy industry and the Jersey cow.

The public purse also subsidises fee-paying schools to keep them accessible to the masses, pays for the upkeep and preservation of our heritage to ensure that it is around for generations to come and in the UK and around the world governments have bailed out banks to ensure that the whole financial system on which we depend does not fall apart.

So, the real question now is, should the States step in to help save the high street? And if so, to what extent should it intervene?

Retailers also have to ensure they are doing their bit by responding to the challenges they currently face creatively and proactively.

With all the spare time and energy we will have by putting the Sunday trading issue to bed, there really is scope to move on to a much more important and potentially game-changing – one way or another – debate about the future of the high street and the government’s part in it.