Leeds City Council has pledged to continue to provide a range of meaningful assistance to all market traders in Leeds – including Pudsey market.
Measures include providing a 100% rent concession for all Pudsey market traders from 1st January to 31st March 2021, and a 50% rent concession for indoor market traders at Leeds Kirkgate Market alongside a full reduction for outdoor traders selling essential goods.
Trader representatives have welcomed the support and thanked Leeds City Council for giving traders hope in the ongoing pandemic.
Councillor Asghar Khan, Leeds City Council’s deputy executive member with responsibility for markets, said:
“While our essential businesses have been able to remain open and provide an invaluable service to the people of Leeds that we are very grateful for, I also appreciate and would also like to thank those forced to close under current measures for the sacrifice they have made again in these unprecedented times.
“It is for this reason that since the first lockdown in March 2020, we have offered a meaningful package of support for all of our traders. By investing in and supporting our traders now, we are helping to secure a future for our independents.”
The council has put in place a range of measures to support traders across the city since the first lockdown in March 2020, including payment plans to the end of March 2022 to allow traders to spread the payment of arrears accrued during the lockdown period. This is in addition to a range of support provided to businesses by the Government including rates relief and grants.
Earlier this month a Kirkgate Market trader has called on people to support local businesses after the introduction of the latest lockdown hit them “like a tonne of bricks”.