Social change occurs in a curious way in Britain.

We tend to go in for it in fits and starts.

Take the Sunday trading laws which are set to be reformed following Chancellor George Osborne’s budget on Wednesday.

This will be the first significant shake up of the laws since the 1990s but it will be up to elected mayors and local authorities to decide with power being devolved to them.

Mr Osbourne told The Guardian: “Even two decades on from the introduction of the Sunday Trading Act, it is clear that there is still a growing appetite for shopping on a Sunday.

“There is some evidence that transactions for Sunday shopping are actually growing faster than those for Saturday.”

Curiously, he added that “this won’t be right for every area” which may lead to bizarre anomalies with shops being allowed to open longer in Kirklees, say, but not in the neighbouring authorities of Bradford and Calderdale.

Still, even if the legislation goes through and local authorities endorse it, longer opening hours must be a good thing so long as workers are protected.

For many people Saturday is often their ‘going out’ day, watching their local football team etc while Sunday is reserved for relaxing, pottering about in the garden and so on.

In fact how many times will people have fancied popping down to their local B&Q for example to enjoy some late afternoon shopping so they can get on with that bit of decking before finding the doors bolted?

Traditionally the unions have been opposed to any further deregulation of Sunday trading but fortunately their ability to prevent this occurring should be limited this time around.

As well as allowing retailers to compete more effectively against online shopping the lobby group Open Sundays estimate the reforms could bring in more than £20bn over 20 years to the British economy.

For anyone who remembers those frustrating faraway days when pubs shut at 3pm and didn’t open again until after 5pm during the week and on a Sunday were limited to opening from noon until 2pm before re-opening at 7pm this accompanying retail relaxation is not a day overdue.