Smithfield Market rent talks ongoing

Preliminary talks are understood to have started as early as last year, but tenants are tight-lipped over the state of the negotiations with the tenants' association even refusing to confirm that a rent review is under way. No one from the Corporation was available to comment on the state of the talks.

The Victorian Grade II-listed Market was modernised at a cost of some £75m in the early 1990s and today comprises more than 40 stalls in the 142-year-old East and West markets and several more in the 135-year-old poultry market. In recent years, there has been a consolidation of businesses in the Market with a number being bought by other existing tenants.

Smithfield remains the biggest London wholesale market not to have moved from central London and, although there has been speculation over many years of the main site's redevelopment, no firm proposals have been put forward or are likely to be made in the foreseeable future. If such proposals were made, tenants would expect compensation for having to move.

Controversial plans to redevelop outlying parts of the site, including the General Market and the Fish Market, with modern office blocks have been made in recent years, but have not progressed for various reasons. These include the blocking of an original proposal following a public inquiry related to the historical value of the site, and the subsequent recession.

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