On 28th October we were pleased to be able to present some of the views and analysis of campaigners on markets to the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Markets. We were invited by National Market Traders Federation (NMTF), which organises the group. One of the aims of the group is to increase the profile of markets with parliamentarians (MPs and Lords) and ministers. For an industry that employs 65,000 people directly, has a turnover of £3.3bn and occupies large sections of our towns and cities, markets are still quite under-represented and encounter a lack of interest from Government. Large corporate food retailers such as Tesco, by contrast, have a far more direct line to ministers and MPs. There are some major issues in the markets industry at the moment, for example the threat of the European Services Directive, which market bodies predict will have a damaging effect on competition and diversity in markets. We talked to the group of market industry leaders, MPs and peers about some of the issues and concerns raised by market campaigners, both traders and customers. The Chair of the APPG, Jim Fitzpatrick MP, took a great interest in our report.
Below are the key points we made. You can find our full report at http://tradmarketresearch.weebly.com/report.html