Local Markets

Lord Harrison Excerpts

Wednesday 23rd July 2014 Grand Committee

Asked by

[Lord Harrison]

To ask Her Majesty’s Government how they intend to help local markets throughout the United Kingdom prosper and expand the national economy.

[Lord Harrison (Lab)]

My Lords, throughout my life I have loved my local market, not only for providing the necessities of life—I increasingly need and cherish a diet of fresh fruit and vegetables—but for providing surprises and, above all, the serendipitous. When I was a poor student in Newcastle-under-Lyme, I would plunder the Saturday market, as cauliflowers and other vegetables were sold off at half-price in the late afternoon. Forty years later, my wife and I returned to that same Midlands market and found a stall dispensing prized historic Oxford English Dictionaries at knock-down prices to add to my home library of English dictionaries. My thrill at those bargains led me to go further and bid for a splendid acoustic guitar to add to another jackdaw collection of mine—guitars. My cheeky bid was roundly rebutted and rightly so; but the thrill of the market had scored again.

These days, my wife and I cherish our local Cheshire markets: Frodsham for fruit, veg and eggs, when you know the local farms from where they are sourced, and slippers, cheap and comfortable; or Neston, the home of Lady Hamilton, which is on the silted-up Dee Estuary and is a fabulous market for fresh fruit and vegetables, exotic bread and plants. Nor do we ever neglect to banter over a cup of coffee with the regular coffee trader who returns on Fridays after servicing summer music festivals around the country. These days, my wife and I schedule visits to local markets on our holiday travels. Last year, we filled up the car with purchases from contrasting markets in Yorkshire: the Saturday market in Beverley, near the historic Minster; and later the extensive and renowned Kirkgate market in Leeds. Perhaps the Minister can confirm whether the Government are still funding the local enterprise initiative “How Bizaar”, which permits new start-up traders 12 weeks’ free rental for testing new products, services or business ideas.

Britain is rich in local markets. We should prize them for what they are and strive to maintain and enhance their essence, but also ready them for the challenges of modern life. Today we hold the Government to account on their clarion call, published in May this year: “Love Your Local Market”. In 2009 there were some 1,100 traditional markets, representing a worrying decline. Some 38,000 market traders showed a decline of some 14% in five years. Retail markets employed some 95,000 people in 2008, with a further 10,000 employed in wholesale markets. The average spend of a declining number of shoppers has fallen, despite the total spend calculated at £3.5 billion for retail markets as a whole.

However, there is evidence that traditional markets create more employment than many other forms of retail—perhaps the Minister could confirm that—and that they support new business creation by providing low-cost entry to retail trading. In 2013, the NMTF’s “First Pitch” scheme launched 100 new entrepreneurs on traditional markets. Importantly, markets simply do not discriminate by age, class, gender, sex, ethnicity, religion or nationality. Young people fired up with the desire to try their hand at a business can freely open up a stall in a traditional market. The flexibility that is the hallmark of markets reflects the characteristic flexibility of start-up SME entrepreneurs to provide and respond to what the public want in terms of both regular and changing needs. The ethnic diversity that is a feature of so many of our contemporary markets offers visible proof of a society that is integrating: the diversity of people is reflected in the diversity of the goods, and the diversity of the goods bespeaks the diversity of the people.

However, we have problems. Many indoor, outdoor and covered markets are underfunded, undervalued and lacking support from their local communities. This often reflects unfavourably on the local authorities, which are charged with overseeing the local markets in their jurisdiction. Not only are the local authorities being rigorously held to account for every penny spent—with cuts that in my view undermine the very raison d’être of local authorities—but in seeking help from the town hall, the local market, nestled outside in the town hall square, is usually at the back of the queue of competing demands. Market infrastructure is often poorly maintained, despite onerous service charges inflicted on the traders. Public sector cuts lead to downsizing of the nominal market services provided by the council, leading to poor market management. Reduced publicity budgets denude local authorities of the wherewithal to publicise the local market and guide potential visitors and shoppers with simple advice, such as where to park.

Understandably, some councils supplement depleted council coffers by reallocating income from market traders to other worthy council services, many of which are a statutory obligation; it is equally understandable that the traders in the square outside feel cheated. However, unlike other groups with claims on the council, the market trader is too busy minding the stall to indulge in special pleading. The admirable National Market Traders Federation does its best to organise its members, but the Government must redouble their efforts to understand the heartfelt cry of market traders wanting nothing more than to pitch outside to do their job.

I turn to the Minister, to test how far HMG can help a group worthy of nurturing. What are the Government’s mature reflections on the Portas review of high streets? Has her characterisation of markets as an untapped resource as part of a town’s integrated retail offer been followed through? Perhaps the Minister might offer some successful examples.

Given that the major supermarkets are now responding to the challenge of Aldi and Lidl, are the Government sanguine that discounters have grown while local markets have declined? While the £25,000 granted to the “Love Your Local Market” campaign run by the National Association of British Market Authorities was welcome, it hardly does justice to the problem. Can the Minister do something better than this annual flash in the pan? Can the Government point to national information campaigns for consumers, especially those encouraging the population to eat healthily, which specifically point to support for traditional markets? What financial help are the Government giving to help traders adapt to and adopt important consumer legislation? Examples, please.

Many markets are housed in old Victorian market halls. Garstang in Lancashire has one such small hall, supplementing its wonderful Thursday street market, but such halls need to be updated, not only to give a fillip to the local market but to improve the attraction of our town centres. Do the Government recognise responsibility for these? Many local traders are in fear of UK and EU legislation and need advice as to what they can and cannot do. The local council can often play an active role here in advising and inspecting with a benign eye. Perhaps the Minister can give more illustration of that.

The Government must invest in local markets, because they are thereby investing in our local communities. This would include good parking facilities—why not free to customers?; good toilet facilities and wi-fi; bright lighting; energy-efficient heating systems; regular cleaning and maintenance of the market space; engaging websites and social media; and home delivery or click-and-collect services. These are all commonplace in most UK retail spaces; why not for local markets? Will the Government also address the practical training needs of market traders, especially in the field of adopting new technologies, including e-commerce, social media and mobile card payments? Rather than wilting under the reach of Amazon, market traders can warm to new ways of advertising their wares, but government help is desirable. I have hinted at the attraction of tourism and day visitors to local markets and I hope that we can have a response on that.

I conclude by noting with pleasure that the NMTF has signed a memorandum of understanding with its European equivalents; can we have a response to that? I would also welcome responses to the CLG Committee’s Market Failure?: Can the Traditional Market Survive? report and to the NMTF’s excellent 2012 report Retail Markets in the UK. I would be most grateful to the Minister if he could cover that ground, which is so important to an important group in our lives, in the square outside the town hall.