Anne Main welcomes report on markets
Press Release :
23 July 2009
Anne Main, MP for St Albans, has today welcomed the publication of the “Market Failure?: Can the traditional market survive?” report by the Communities and Local Government Select Committee.
Anne serves on the Committee, and suggested the report personally as she had concerns about the future of retail markets, and thought more could be done by local and central Government to protect them.
Commenting on the report, Anne said:
“Here in St Albans we have a fabulous, historic market which is a unique selling point in our area. It draws in visitors from miles around, supporting other retail units by encouraging shoppers to come to our city. Nationally, however, I know the big supermarkets have been lobbying the Government hard over retail needs tests, spending small fortunes on advertising, and potentially drawing the lifeblood out of thriving markets. I was concerned this shouldn’t happen in St Albans, which is why I suggested to the Communities and Local Government Select Committee that we should examine markets as a formal inquiry. Our evidence underlined my concerns, and I hope that as a result of this report a more positive future now beckons for markets across the country.
It was amazing to hear witnesses to our committee say that this sort of report should have been commissioned 20 years ago when the face of our towns and cities was being radically altered through building and planning, sometimes at the expense of historic markets. I am glad St Albans didn’t go down that route. I was aware that in other areas markets were not as successful as ours, and there are significant challenges facing traditional markets in competition with major retailers.
The report makes it quite clear that, whilst overall some of the smaller markets have definitely been declining for years, on the whole the future is reasonably optimistic. However, local and central Government must do a lot more to help them. Key criticisms at a local level were: a lack of investment, a lack of consultation particularly with regard to planning decisions which could take away trade, a lack of promotion in face of vigorous advertising by major stores, and a lack of focus on the role of Market Manager and the responsibilities for markets within many councils across the country.
At central Government level, we recommended that markets are brought within the Communities and Local Government portfolio, and that the Government takes on board the concerns expressed in this report. It was quite obvious that there was no interdepartmental working, that the Minister certainly hadn’t ever even met with market representatives, and that despite the Government’s assertions that it values markets, and that markets could deliver some of their key objectives on health and social integration, this was not obvious in anything they were doing. This is why this report is so important.”
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