1 Introduction
1. Markets are our oldest form of exchange. They
are the reason many towns exist. Our oldest markets, established
under Royal Charter, can trace their origins back to medieval
times.
2. We acknowledge the value of this heritage. It
is not, however, the reason that we decided to undertake an inquiry
into traditional retail markets. Rather, our motivation was to
investigate whether markets remain relevant today, and whether
thriving markets can continue to bring substantial and diverse
benefits to the towns, cities and communities that sustain them
and are in turn sustained by them. Prompted initially by observations
in our own constituencies, we wanted to know whether markets today
are fulfilling their potential and, crucially, whether there was
more that local authorities and Government should be doing to
help.
3. During the course of our inquiry we held four
oral evidence sessions and received over 40 written memoranda
from local and central government, the markets industry, consultancy
firms, private operators, and market traders. We would like to
thank everyone who took part, and gave us the benefit of their
knowledge. We would like to give particular thanks to all who
contributed to our successful visits to Ridley Road Market in
Hackney, Chapel Market in Islington and Leicester Markets. Our
visit reports are annexed to this report. We wish also to extend
special thanks to Leicester City Council for letting us hold an
oral evidence session in its council chambers.
4. Because we were particularly keen to hear from
those with first-hand experience of doing business in markets,
we ran a web forum aimed at market traders from Tuesday 17 March
09 until 28 April 09. We received helpful posts from market traders
suggesting how to improve markets and assist market trading, why
it is becoming harder to run a market stall and what makes a successful
market, a number of which are quoted in our report. We would
like to thank all those who participated in the web forum, and
also the National Market Traders' Federation (NMTF) for helping
us to publicise it. A summary report of the forum is annexed to
this report.
5. Finally, we would like to extend our thanks to
our two specialist advisers to this inquiry, Professor Alan Hallsworth
of the University of Surrey and Professor Sophie Watson of the
Open University. We would like to thank them both for their invaluable
contribution.[1]
1 Professor Watson declared that she had no relevant
interests. Professor Hallsworth declared the following interests:
Adviser for the South East Regional Food Group Markets Policy
Team, writing a report for SONY UK on UK retail market regulation,
participant in Committee member Andrew George's cross-cutting
group co-ordinating minority responses to the Competition Commission
Groceries Inquiry Back
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