Shepherd's Bush Market Plans Finally Get the Go Ahead
Opponent says approval will result in its 'irreversible gentrification'
Visualisation of entrance to market showing nine storey building. Picture: Yoo Capital
December 20, 2023
A major redevelopment of the 109-year-old Shepherd’s Bush market has been approved by councillors, paving the way for new flats, stalls, and a nine-storey building to be constructed.
Three of the five Hammersmith and Fulham councillors attending Tuesday night’s (19 December) Planning and Development Control Committee meeting voted to give the plans the green light, a decision decried as ‘shameful’ by an opposition group.
The meeting had to be adjourned from earlier this month due to protests by Protect Shepherd’s Bush Market campaigners. The group has previously raised concerns about applicant Yoo Capital’s proposals, in particular the protection of traders’ leases, and the financial support offered to help resolve issues such as leaking arches.
Yoo Capital’s plans for the market, which runs between Goldhawk Road and Uxbridge Road, involve works from the new stalls, homes and commercial buildings, to various aesthetic improvements, such as new entrance signs and cleaning up the arches.
Security had noticeably increased since the previous meeting, with compulsory bag checks, and enforcement officers visible outside the council’s offices. Picking up where the previous session had been called off, Jake Simms, a member of Protect Shepherd’s Bush Market, told committee members Yoo Capital intends on maximising the profit of the site by ‘reducing the number of traders on the market’, claiming 25 have already left, with a ‘significant number’ planning to sell-up in the near future.
“New traders do not have the same protections as long-term traders on Transport for London (TfL) leases,” he said. “Those new traders, rents and service charge levels can be increased to an unlimited degree because they have no legal protections under the 1954 Landlord and Tenant Act as older traders do.”
Mr Simms added there are no planning obligations ‘to stop bigger chains, bigger stores moving into this market’.
“This planning application paves the way for the gentrification, the irreversible gentrification of Shepherd’s Bush Market, and the end of Shepherd’s Bush Market as an affordable and diverse market serving the local community.”
Visualisation of the new market. Picture: Yoo Capital
Andrew Thorpe, managing director at Yoo Capital, was among those speaking in favour of the redevelopment. He said, “The market needs investment to survive. Our plans provide this while respecting the character of the market and the individuality of its businesses. We are proposing to improve the infrastructure of the market, and provide a £5.5 million package of support for the traders.”
Mr Thorpe continued to note that support includes money towards new units, rent freezes and long-term leases with the same protections as the current arrangements. Planning documents detail how rent payments will be paused during construction and frozen at 2015 levels until 2031, after which there will be a move to ‘open market rent’. Protect Shepherd’s Bush Market has argued this will mean costs will be hiked, pushing some traders out of business then.
Another key part of the financial support package is the £10,000 Yoo Capital has committed to provide each trader, which is intended to be used to upgrade units or improve the quality of the arches. Mr Simms previously claimed the campaign group were told by one tenant that due to the state of their arch, they had to pay around £75,000 to resolve certain issues, far more than the £10,000 being offered.
Queried by committee chair Cllr Omid Miri on what independent assessment was done to land on the £10,000 figure, and if there is a commitment to provide further financial support if needed, council officers said the funding ‘is a form of credit that can be used by the individual tenants to upgrade their premises as they see fit’.
Mr Thorpe added Yoo Capital has done various surveys into the arches, and that it is already dealing with some of those suffering from minor issues. He said the company intends to offer a water protection system to traders which will direct any leaks towards the drainage, which can be covered by the £10,000. For those who do not need such support, they can put the money towards improvements such as electrics, he said.
Asked where the figure Mr Simms had referenced may come from, Mr Thorpe said it would be the amount required to cover an entire fit-out with a mezzanine floor. He later added, after being questioned by Cllr Rebecca Harvey about the discrepancy in costs, that some of the arches are ‘very big’, and so if a new floor and mezzanine are fitted, it ‘would go into the tens of thousands’.
“Most of them, we’re actually allowing the £10,000 to waterproof the arch,” he said. “There still needs to be work done to the rear of the units, and that’s something that the traders have to look to themselves.”
Responding to Mr Thorpe’s comments, Mr Simms said a 2016 Court of Appeals judgement, which prevented a previous compulsory purchase order of the site from going ahead, had made clear the condition of the arches is the responsibility of the owner of the site, in this case Yoo Capital. There is ‘zero credibility’, he added, that the system mentioned by Mr Thorpe would address the disrepair or structural issues suffered by several of the tenants based in arches.
Cllr Wesley Harcourt meanwhile asked about the 29 per cent carbon reductions associated with the redevelopment, which he said was well below the Greater London Authority (GLA) target of 35 per cent. Officers responded saying they deemed it to be as far as they could push the applicant, with Cllr Harcourt commenting: “If you can afford to pollute you can get away with it, and I don’t agree with that.”
All five councillors present approved an additional £1.5 million contribution from Yoo Capital as part of its Section 106 agreement, before voting three-to-two in-favour of the application, with councillors Harcourt and Alex Karmel against.
Following the decision, Mr Thorpe told the Local Democracy Reporting Service, “On behalf of the traders and the wider community we are extremely pleased that the proposed plans for Shepherd’s Bush Market have now been approved. After years of uncertainty for the traders and the market, we’re looking forward to supporting the community through the next phase and ensuring the success of their businesses for years to come.”
A spokesperson for Protect Shepherd’s Bush Market described the decision as ‘shameful’, adding the group will continue to fight the application ‘and the rampant gentrification it represents’.
The application requires final approval from the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, before a decision notice can be issued for work to begin.
Ben Lynch - Local Democracy Reporter
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