Massive rent arrears and over-running repairs have made Newcastle’s beloved Grainger Market a “drain” on city resources, a report has warned.
Council bosses say that it is costing them £300,000-a-year to keep the historic city centre market running, after traders were hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic. Stallholders have racked up a whopping debt of more than half a million pounds to Newcastle City Council over the past two years, while the bills for restoring the site’s roof have spiralled above £5m as the project has dragged more than two years behind schedule.
Traders previously criticised the council in 2020 for refusing to cut rent payments for their stalls, even when they were forced to shut during lockdown and had no source of income. However, local authority chiefs say they will give struggling independent businesses time to pay their arrears and hope that multi-million pound upgrades secured through the government’s Levelling Up Fund will see the famous institution become a thriving, profitable hub once again.
Read More: What Grainger Market traders want after restoration gets multi-million pound Budget boost
Michell Percy, the council’s director of place, told councillors this week that civic centre officials “have to balance the books, but we also have to take the longer term view” in order not to lose stallholders. She said at a meeting of the authority’s finance and budget monitoring scrutiny sub-committee: “The traders can see there is investment in the roof and from the successful Levelling Up Fund bid, they see the opportunities that exist with the Grainger Market getting the right type of position and situation in the city.
“The traders are not refusing to pay, they are just saying that they need some time and support. The whole uniqueness of the Grainger Market is the traders and we must retain them and give them time to bring their arrears up to date.”
Ms Percy’s report said that £7m of Levelling Up money, to be supplemented with £2m from the council, was a “fantastic opportunity to turn a currently resource draining asset into a successful operation” – though details of how that cash will be spent are yet to be confirmed. The council confirmed that traders’ Covid arrears for 2020 and 2021 built up to £575,000, which it has not pursued due to a government moratorium which has now expired.
Leslie Armstrong, who runs the Scented Melts stall in the market, said she felt there had been “no offer of support at all” from the council and warned that she could soon leave unless significant renovations are made soon. She added: “The council has always said that the Grainger Market is the jewel in the crown, but that crown has slipped.
“I have done everything I can to make my shop as nice as I can, but my takings are going down here and they are not at the Quayside Market. I know it is not my product that is the issue, but the footfall in here is diabolical.
“Unless there is substantial investment in the next six months, I will not be here after Christmas. It is pretty soul-destroying, I have been here six and a half years and I thought there would have been improvement by now.
“The food stalls are doing really well, the one good thing that the council has done is bring in high-quality food. But they are not making it work for the whole market.
“It is not rocket science, it just needs some investment around the entrances and so on to let people know we are here – the first rule of retail is that you have to drive people in.”
A council spokesman said: “The Government imposed a moratorium on debt during the pandemic which only came to an end last month. While we await Government guidance on the process to recover that debt, we have written to all Grainger Market traders to say we want to support them in helping them pay down their debts.
“We expect this may take some time – but given the scale of the debt we remain a patient landlord. We have invested significant sums in the fabric of the building to put it on a sustainable footing so it remains a part of the cultural and retail offer of the city centre for many generations to come.”
