The communities and local government parliamentary committee has recommended a named minister with responsibility for markets and that the communities and local government department should become the clear first point of contact for market matters.

The recommendations came as part of the committee’s report, Market Failure? Can the Traditional Market survive?, which was published last week.

Despite negative national media coverage focusing on the decline of the UK’s retail street markets, the National Association of British Market Authorities (NABMA) welcomes the report.

Krys Zasada, policy development manager at the association, said: “Overall, this report is excellent and is supported by NABMA. The other great thing is that some of the recommendations that we put forward have made it as recommendations into the final report, including having a named minister with responsibility for markets and an inter-departmental working group on markets.”

The committee recognised good practice within the sector and one of its recommendations is for the industry itself to look in particular at how it can provide further best practice guidance and support to lower-tier councils that lack specialist knowledge.

The Fresh Produce Consortium is now urging government to do more to get behind traditional retail street markets, as the trade waits to see how central government will act on the recommendations made in the report.