These markets should be a chance to showcase the best of what you’ve got, but not having the ‘Scouse soul’ there is so annoying,
said stallholder Anthony Grice, capturing the frustration of local traders facing £12,000 pitch fees at Liverpool’s revamped Christmas market.
Independent traders across Merseyside say they have been priced out of this year’s attraction on St George’s Plateau after a new operator doubled running costs. Liverpool City Council leader Liam Robinson has met with business owners to discuss the financial squeeze as the event transitions to London-based events company Underbelly.
Stall Fees Double Under New Management
Traders report compulsory card-only tills, a share of sales of between 10% and 20% depending on the trader quoted, and payouts held back for up to 90 days after the market closes.
Jeweller Alex Healy, from Gateacre, who has traded at the market annually since 2021, rang a BBC Radio Merseyside phone-in to tell Robinson that she would not be returning to the market this year. She learned that securing a chalet would cost in the region of £14,000 to £15,000, and she rang to tell Robinson about her situation.
I have the smallest hut available, but that price I physically cannot afford it.
Jeweller Alex Healy
She added that she was acutely aware of the cost-of-living crisis facing her customers, stating that she did not want to raise her prices and shouldn’t have to.
Healy also told the Liverpool Echo that takings would be held for 90 days after the market ends, meaning she would not see her Christmas money until March. Robinson said he wanted entrepreneurs like Healy to succeed and invited her to meet him to look at ways the council could support her business.
Grice and Robinson Clash over Local Trader Concerns
Grice stated that local concerns felt like they were being swept under the carpet
during a meeting to discuss the plans. He noted that he asked how many local traders had signed up, and the council did not know. He also asked, Aren’t our people good enough?
Council leader Liam Robinson stated that he had met business owners to understand the challenges and issues they might have had this year so the authority could look at different options in future. He added that the council had been aware of the price structure being offered to traders by the new operator, Underbelly, when it won the contract to run the event, and noted that the local authority would get a share of some of the income. Robinson defended the selection process, stating that Underbelly had won the tender to run the market on quality and price and had a track record of delivering these markets successfully in lots of other places across the country.
Underbelly is best known for its programme at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and for Skate Leicester Square in London.
The market itself runs from 21 November 2026 to 3 January 2027, is free to enter, and features a new ice rink alongside attractions such as a Big Wheel, a carousel, a Wave Swinger, a helter skelter, a Santa Train, a reindeer ride, a Christmas Tree Maze, and three themed bars named the rooftop Snowed Inn, the family Bar Humbug, and the 1980s and 1990s themed On the Piste.
Carl Cashman, the leader of the Liberal Democrat opposition group on the council, denounced the £14,000 cost as a rip-off.
Small businesses are feeling the pinch at the moment, with rising business rates, inflation, and payroll costs, and consumers spending less. So £14,000 is just a risk too big for them to take, and the market won’t be as good for it.
Carl Cashman, leader of the Liberal Democrat opposition group on the council
In response to the lockout, a Liverpool City Council spokesperson stated that local traders would be able to sell artisan goods at a street market on Basnett Street running on each Saturday in November, plus at regular and pop-up markets in Lark Lane and Woolton Village in the run-up to Christmas.
Meanwhile, Patsy Murphy, 67, and Harry Khanijau, 73, who have run a hot food stall and an ice cream van next to the Gerry Marsden Ferry Terminal since 2009, face a separate blow as they could lose their street trading permits from April 2027.