It is recommended that 65 per cent of the tenants that remain at Smithfield and Billingsgate after the inevitable shake-out should move to Nine Elms, and that around £80 million is spent on revamping the site to accommodate the new business. NCG, said Saphir, should become the composite distribution centre for the centre of London.
'In terms of New Covent Garden, we have to be very upbeat,' said tenants' association chairman Philip Emanuel. 'On the back of what [then agriculture minister] Nick Brown said two years ago, this report comes down very strongly in favour of Nine Elms as a site for all products for the catering trade in the future. This is good news for all tenants and particularly the younger tenants who can now look more positively towards the market as their long-term future.
'There is an assured position for us in London, despite the traffic problems that exist, and people here with ideas can be that much more confident about them than they might have been before.' That new-found confidence should also be a feature of NCG's fruit and vegetable counterparts in east and west London.
'As Spitalfields and Western International are the two other named markets, it perhaps tells us that there is more need for fish and meat to amalgamate into the fruit and vegetable sector than the other way around,' said Emanuel. 'It is an independent view, and some will see it as radical, but from our point of view it is difficult to say anything other than it is good.' How the recommendations are implemented and how long that will take, he added, is another matter. 'Legislation changes are first on the agenda. This is not in the Queen's speech this year and unless the government pick up on it early next year, it may not get into the Queen's speech in 2003 either. We are probably looking at 2005 before any changes to the law. During that time there has to be an agreement that there is real benefit in bringing the markets together from all parties. It has to be a tenant led affair, but it also needs solid political and financial backing. If Defra backs this report, the Corporation certainly seems to want to drive the recommendations through.' The market authority at Nine Elms has long advocated the one-stop-shop approach for the site and the six-and-two-thirds mile restriction is widely accepted as outdated. So, there were few big surprises in the Review. However, what happens next will be interesting to say the least.
'We will first sit down with the market authority and then our tenants association will make contact with the associations at the meat and fish markets,' said Emanuel. 'We all need to sit down and see if there is a mutual good in working together – to ensure that we are all rowing in the same direction.
'I'm not sure this report is supposed to bring about a resurgence in the wholesale sector, much of what has been lost in the catering trade will not return in my opinion. But it is about maintaining and preserving the business that we still have and that is a very positive move. There is a lot of work to be done and a lot of thought has to go into the next steps.'
