Borough market welcomes new funding for traders after MP Neil Coyle intervenes

A market has welcomed vital new funding for its traders who had been previously excluded from government financial support.

Stall holders in Borough Market can get government grants following a campaign by the market’s constituency MP Neil Coyle.

An extra £617 million in grants was made available to help small businesses in financial difficulties due to the lockdown. Small businesses who did not pay business rates – a group which included many market traders – had not been able to access the previously-announced £12 billion government small business support fund.

The issue had been highlighted by Bermondsey and Old Southwark MP Mr Coyle after the market’s management alerted him to how the loophole meant many of the market’s traders faced ruin because of it.

The market pays business rates on behalf of its traders, meaning the individual businesses could not claim the grants as they were classified as non-business rate payers.

Darren Henaghan, managing director of Borough Market, said: “Our traders had effectively fallen through the gaps in the floorboard of the government scheme for small businesses and have suffered considerably as a result.

“Thankfully Neil Coyle was alive to the issue and campaigned to get this loophole closed. We are hugely grateful to him.”

Mr Coyle, who wrote to Chancellor Rishi Sunak to raise the issue, said: “In the current circumstances, the traders deserve all the support they can get. I am delighted that this unfortunate discrepancy has been resolved.

“Due to the unique make-up of the market, the traders were denied access to the grants available to other small businesses.

“I am sure this was unintentional. Having already come through the 2017 London Bridge terror attacks to prosper again, it is crucial the traders get support at this crucial time.”