Sunday trading laws are set to be suspended and pubs will be given fast-track measures to allow them to serve food and drink outside, according to new government plans.
To boost the economy Downing Street is in the process of drawing up a package of measures to help prevent unemployment and get the public spending again.
As part of the plans, cafes and restaurants which want to seat diners outside will not have to pay fees to local authorities, the Times reports.
And larger supermarkets will be able to open for more than six hours on a Sunday as trading laws are to be set aside for a year.
Smaller convenience stores are reportedly unhappy about the proposals, but bigger chains such as Morrisons and Asda are thought to be on board with the plans.
The measures are being drawn up by chancellor Rishi Sunak and business secretary Alok Sharma, and backed by Boris Johnson and his chief advisor Dominic Cummings.
Ministers aim to drop planning restrictions on high street properties so it is easier to switch between shops, retail and residential uses.
They also want to make it easier for pubs to reconfigure and serve people outside.
The plans are part of a bailout to help get the hospitality and retail sectors back on their feet, and the present 28-day minimum statutory consultation period is likely to be dropped.
It comes after it was revealed the government secretly plans to reopen pubs by the end of the month.
Previous guidelines said pubs won’t open back up until July 4 ‘at the earliest’ but a new plan drawn up by ministers will allow bars to start serving again sooner.
Pubs were closed for the foreseeable future on March 20, just days before the country went into full lockdown.
Under the ‘blueprint’ drawn up by the Department for Business involves a plan for drinkers to place orders remotely via an app to ensure people don’t have to walk up to the bar or have direct contact with staff.
Wetherspoons already runs an app which allows smartphone users to order food and drinks to their table, with hopes other pubs can follow suit.
Breweries including Heineken stopped making kegs of lager during lockdown when pubc were shuttered and focused on producing bottles and cans instead.
But The Sun reports breweries are planning to deliver 250 million pints by the middle of June. Heineken has breweries in Edinburgh, Manchester and Tadcaster in North Yorkshire, said to produce four million pints of beer a day.
Pubs are also awaiting deliveries around the same date from Asahi, the firm behind Peroni and Grolsch. Anheuser-Busch, the maker of Stella Artois and Budweiser, has told pub bosses that their kegs will be delivered in the next few weeks too.
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