Lib Dem London Assembly Candidate Backs Calls To Protect Shepherd's Bush Market

The Shepherd's Bush Market re-development illustrates what is not working in our capital.

This colourful, diverse, and affordable 110-year-old market is threatened by a significant out-of-proportion 9-floor office building development in the middle of a residential area (with 40 affordable homes alongside). Most residents and traders agree that the area, and the market, need investments, but the project recently approved by the H&F Council raises many questions. 

Residents have and are rightly asking where the demand for office space is and what the case could possibly be for over-development in a low-rise residential area.

This is at a time when we are facing a housing crisis and significant office space is already being delivered in Olympia or in Fulham at the former Earl's Court Exhibition Centre for instance. Residents are questioning as well why a project that fails to meet London-wide and local climate change objectives is progressing and gaining approval.

The current plans are pushing many local market traders out by withdrawing their protected leases, with risks of increasing rents and service charges. Many traders Christophe spoke to feel left on their own, having to negotiate new, complex contractual and financial terms that put small businesses their families have invested in and developed over generations at risk. The planned years of construction will materially disrupt these family-run businesses, and the current support proposed by the developer as well as investments in the market will not compensate.

After H&F Council's approval of the plans in Dec 2023, the only hopes for a better outcome lie with the London Mayor, who has the powers to reject the application, and demand better for these communities! We should be protecting communities and London's local markets. 

If you agree that residents, traders and the local community should be supported, you can help by signing the petition calling for the London Mayor to reject the plans here: https://www.change.org/p/call-on-sadiq-khan-to-protect-shepherd-s-bush-market