Nick Saphir has called on the Corporation of London, Defra and the Greater London Authority to negotiate a quick resolution to the dispute over the future of London's wholesale markets.
Saphir made his first official public comment on his review of London's markets since its publication. Addressing the House of Commons select committee on agriculture, he said: 'I don't think anybody truly argues with the concept of composite markets. It is very important the interested parties get round the table and discuss which way they want to go forward.
'I hope we are at the beginning of a serious negotiation and not a stand-off,' he said, referring to Lord Whitty's statement on the future of the markets last month. 'If anything, the minister's statement will be the catalyst that breaks the log-jam or the signal for battle to commence.' When asked, Saphir told the committee that he believed action must be taken within five years, adding that any project would take four or five years to bring about. 'There is enough evidence to suggest three markets in their current form would not be viable. Many people don't recognise the slippery slope. To do nothing would be a great mistake. It may be acceptable to some people to let that happen, but it is not a valid long-term strategy. If we don't have some unplugging of the log-jam, there will need to be continual investment in Nine Elms and Billingsgate in the next five to 10 years,' he said.
The money spent, he added, would be 'superfluous or redundant or in the wrong place.' Or, he suggested, 'let the balls fall where they fall – maybe the markets will survive maybe they won't.' Lord Whitty, Defra, was asked by select committee chairman Michael Jack, why the government after nearly six years in office is 'still stuck in the market business', to which the minister responded, 'We have never found a proper context yet to divest ourselves of the market site'.
Defra, he said, remains committed to selling New Covent Garden as a going concern, but has not yet found a partner willing to make the necessary investment in the long-term future of the market, under the terms provided.
Jack suggested the minister's statement offered 'no-thought leadership and fence sitting', and urged all parties to decide who should take control of resolving matters.
Select committee member David Curry said the matter was so low down on Defra's priority list that it 'would probably have to wait until the second coming' to be addressed. Lord Whitty retorted: 'I don't know how long you think that's off.' It was generally conceded, however, that the sale of the Nine Elms site is not going to happen in the immediate short term, although Lord Whitty professed to 'hope we can reach an agreement on the future of the Covent Garden site within five years'.
The minister was also forced to admit that Defra was technically 'inviting a test case' by granting permission to Covent Garden tenants to wholesale meat and fish face to face and flying in the face of the six and two third miles law. He added that Defra would not be picking up any legal bills, at least initially.
Both the Corporation of London and Covent Garden Market Authority are confident that they would have a strong case, but ex-barrister Saphir said he hoped it would not reach the courtroom. 'Recourse to law is never a perfect solution for anything. It is wasteful, painful and you never know what the outcome will be,' he said.
Saphir and Lord Whitty were the last to report to the sub-committee, which will publish a report on its findings later this year.
