The future of Birmingham Wholesale Market is certainly looking a lot rosier than a year ago when proposals of a move for the 35-year-old market were scrapped due to lack of funding and council and tenants were at loggerheads as to the way ahead. Now, the traders appear to have won a stay of execution, allowing them to remain on the Pershore Street site in the medium term.
Birmingham, jointly with Glasgow, is the UK’s largest fresh produce wholesale market outside London, and is located within the largest integrated market in the UK.
Mark Tate, chairman of the tenants’ association, says there is still some way to go before traders get closure on their future. “The question as to where best to locate the wholesale markets is expected to go to the Birmingham City Council (BCC) Cabinet Office in October for councillors to consider the report prepared by their executive,” he explains. “We are hopeful that the decision will enable us to remain on our current site. In any event we have received assurances that we will continue to occupy the current location for at least the next three years.”
Tate believes it is possible that council plans to move the market to the Hub at Witton in Aston, which were scrapped last year, might be back on the agenda, along with other options. “We have approached and are working with a major international investor, alongside a company led by some of the most innovative thinkers on the future of wholesale markets,” he says. “Together we have identified an opportunity that will enhance Birmingham’s growing reputation as a must-visit destination for foodies.
“I can’t say much more than that at the moment. There is nothing concrete for now with the council, but we have repaired the bridges.”
Despite the improved mood music between the traders and the BCC, an unprecedented demand received from the council for a 22.5 per cent year- on-year increase in service charge has resulted in a challenge from the traders as to the fairness of such a dramatic rise.
Tate explains: “Council wages have been cut by 10 per cent and the unsociable-hours supplement has been cut by 10 per cent, so staff costs alone are costing 20 per cent less, so I don’t understand why the service charge has increased so much.”
Both tenants and landlord have been on fact-finding missions to other markets, and Western International is being held up as an example of best practice to be emulated where there is a full breakdown on where every pound of the service charge is spent.
“What we want is transparency, to show where the service charge is all going, and what it is being spent on. If the council adopts this approach we are sure a mutually satisfactory solution can be found,” Tate concludes. -
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