This week John Barstow of the Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers wrote to the Financial Times calling for the restriction of Sunday trading online, and not just for bricks and mortar. Barstow was responding to another FT letter by Daniel Lidón, who argued that Sunday trading bans have no place at all in Germany’s secular society, which in turn was a response to an FT report where it was revealed that Germany had banned retail robots from working on Sunday. (Yes, you read that correctly.)

Barstow’s letter claims that banning Sunday trading – including online – makes commercial and entrepreneurial sense: “More goods would be bought before Sunday closure and thus feed into productivity. Germany has the reputation of being a highly productive economy — and their respect for Sundays through retail closure could be deemed a factor in that.”

I don’t even know where to start with this. Back on planet earth, while banning Sunday trading would no doubt see some spending shift to other days, we would expect to see less spending overall due to the added inconvenience, leading to less economic efficiency and certainly less consumer satisfaction.

The suggestion that Sunday closure is somehow connected to Germany’s overall productivity is beyond parody. Forget its historically strong industrial base, its dual education system, its labour relations, and dozens of other orthodox reasons. Nope. Barstow claims it’s because shops are closed on Sunday.

And the idea that this should be extended to e-commerce leaves me speechless.

Defend Sunday closing in Germany – and the many restrictions that still exist in the UK – for religious, conservative and paternalistic reasons if that’s what you believe. But you need to account for the fact that these restrictions aren’t good for the economy, and most certainly not for productivity – quite the opposite.

Planning Eh!
Building in the UK is prohibitively expensive, mostly due to the wall of bureaucracy that policymakers have, instead, managed to construct. We know these regulations are unnecessarily complex because our good friends at Britain Remade compared them with other developed economies like France, Germany and Japan. Check out Ben Hopkinson giving damning evidence to the House of Commons Transport Select Committee this week.

For our part, we’ve argued for a long time that shortages of housing, office space and infrastructure are holding back Britain’s entrepreneurs. It was a major block in our recent Building Blocks report.

But policymakers don’t just want numbers. They want to hear from people at the coalface: the businesses. That’s why we’re hosting a couple of events with Britain Remade. The first will be a dinner at Quo Vadis on 30th May. If you’re a business that has had challenges with the planning system, request a place. If you can’t make this one but would like to attend another, do let us know. Britain Remade works around the country, so get in touch no matter where you are.

Spin Doctorates
Beauhurst and the Royal Academy of Engineering have just released their Spotlight on Spinouts 2024. It reveals that the stake taken by a university during spinout formation increased from 19.1% in 2022 to 22.2% last year.

We think this is a big problem. So much so that we investigated it in our paper Academic to Entrepreneur, making the case for academics, rather than universities, to have ownership of the intellectual property they create.

The Government also knows there’s a problem. That’s why they launched a spinouts review. But although it made encouraging noises, the final report lacked teeth. The recent rise in university stakes, despite the report calling for more standardised agreements with lower ones, means it’s already showing its gums. I increasingly think the best model for understanding the actions of universities is to see them as long-established businesses in a highly regulated industry, rather than learning institutions devoted to the public good. Nothing is going to change unless change is forced upon them.

Take Your Advice
A few new Advisers have joined us. From the law firm Fragomen, we have Partner Louise Haycock and Shuyeb Muquit who is a barrister and UK Government Affairs Strategy Lead. We’re going to be undertaking an exciting piece of research with Fragomen on immigration policy.

Dr Eren Kocyigit, Founder of NBT (Next Big Thing) has also joined as an Adviser. Eren supports us because: “The Entrepreneurs Network provides crucial support to entrepreneurs and also plays a vital role as a bridge between politicians and the business community. This function is particularly critical, considering that entrepreneurs are the lifeblood of the UK economy. By supporting startups, The Entrepreneurs Network not only sustains current employment but also seeds the creation of future job opportunities. Thus, my support for their work stems from a profound appreciation for their ongoing contribution to economic growth and innovation in the UK.”

If you’re considering getting more involved in our work join us in the evening for a drinks event at the London School of Economics on 21st May.