Street trading fees review

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Consultation has concluded

To keep Islington’s street markets competitive, and continue to enable the day-to-day servicing of our markets for repairs and maintenance, energy supply, waste management, enforcement and business promotion, we proposed to raise revenue by increasing street trading fees. This was the first time street trading fees had been reviewed since 2014. The council consulted on fee rises for all traders as well as introducing some new administration charges and adopted a new charging schedule following consultation as per the project updates below.

Why we are raising our fees

All income raised from the new fees will go towards strengthening the street trading service to better support Islington’s traders and help traditional street markets compete with major retail chains and online sales. We want to provide a better promoted and more inclusive service that can attract new traders and help our markets thrive.  

We need to raise income to ensure the effective administration and management of the service for the following reasons: 

  • Energy: costs have gone up significantly since the last time the council reviewed fees for street trading in 2014, with energy costs now significantly higher.
  • Staffing: although wages at the council have risen at a rate below inflation, staff costs are still much higher than in 2014 across all teams that work on our markets, including, street trading, waste, compliance and highways.
  • Repairs, infrastructure and maintenance: inflation means that costs of materials for infrastructure repairs and maintenance are also higher than in 2014.
  • General improvements to markets: we want to deliver more events, better marketing and promotion and improvements to storage facilities.

These increased charges aren't going to be used for anything else within the council, or, for example, as another form of tax, but instead will be used solely to cover the costs of running an effective and inclusive street trading service.

About street trading

The council has a statutory (legal) responsibility to license anyone trading within seven metres of any public highway. This includes market stalls, kiosks or other trading units, such as food trailers. Licensing traders helps to:

  • regulate the condition and health and safety of all traders
  • protect our residents from unscrupulous sellers
  • support markets as diverse community hubs
  • provide inclusive and affordable workspaces for residents
  • add vitality to our local economies

Our proposal

The proposal comprises two parts:

  1. Our fee increase proposal for traders in all wards and in all markets will bring charges back in line with the costs of running the service and improving Islington’s offer to potential new traders whilst continuing to offer the most cost effective street trading opportunities of any inner London borough.
  2. New administration charges are also proposed to include license variation requests, replacement stall cards, and panel referrals, alongside increases in other administration charges, that will enable the service to cover the cost of administering these services and create a more efficient service for traders.

You can find further details on the proposal, including the proposed fee increases and administration charges, via the Documents widget on the right.

To keep Islington’s street markets competitive, and continue to enable the day-to-day servicing of our markets for repairs and maintenance, energy supply, waste management, enforcement and business promotion, we proposed to raise revenue by increasing street trading fees. This was the first time street trading fees had been reviewed since 2014. The council consulted on fee rises for all traders as well as introducing some new administration charges and adopted a new charging schedule following consultation as per the project updates below.

Why we are raising our fees

All income raised from the new fees will go towards strengthening the street trading service to better support Islington’s traders and help traditional street markets compete with major retail chains and online sales. We want to provide a better promoted and more inclusive service that can attract new traders and help our markets thrive.  

We need to raise income to ensure the effective administration and management of the service for the following reasons: 

  • Energy: costs have gone up significantly since the last time the council reviewed fees for street trading in 2014, with energy costs now significantly higher.
  • Staffing: although wages at the council have risen at a rate below inflation, staff costs are still much higher than in 2014 across all teams that work on our markets, including, street trading, waste, compliance and highways.
  • Repairs, infrastructure and maintenance: inflation means that costs of materials for infrastructure repairs and maintenance are also higher than in 2014.
  • General improvements to markets: we want to deliver more events, better marketing and promotion and improvements to storage facilities.

These increased charges aren't going to be used for anything else within the council, or, for example, as another form of tax, but instead will be used solely to cover the costs of running an effective and inclusive street trading service.

About street trading

The council has a statutory (legal) responsibility to license anyone trading within seven metres of any public highway. This includes market stalls, kiosks or other trading units, such as food trailers. Licensing traders helps to:

  • regulate the condition and health and safety of all traders
  • protect our residents from unscrupulous sellers
  • support markets as diverse community hubs
  • provide inclusive and affordable workspaces for residents
  • add vitality to our local economies

Our proposal

The proposal comprises two parts:

  1. Our fee increase proposal for traders in all wards and in all markets will bring charges back in line with the costs of running the service and improving Islington’s offer to potential new traders whilst continuing to offer the most cost effective street trading opportunities of any inner London borough.
  2. New administration charges are also proposed to include license variation requests, replacement stall cards, and panel referrals, alongside increases in other administration charges, that will enable the service to cover the cost of administering these services and create a more efficient service for traders.

You can find further details on the proposal, including the proposed fee increases and administration charges, via the Documents widget on the right.

Consultation has concluded

  • New fee and administrative charging schedule adopted

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    The consultation ran from 27 March 2025 to 28 April 2025 and followed the statutory obligation of placing a notice in the local newspaper. In addition, we sent a letter to all traders by email, ran an online survey, held two online consultation sessions, two in-person consultation sessions and carried out in-person visits to Chapel Market, Whitecross Street Market and Exmouth Market, delivering leaflets about the consultation and talking to traders. We followed best practise for accessibility and sharing information.

    Officers are encouraged by the many positive responses we have received from traders in conversation while visiting the markets and from the positive and thoughtful responses received through the online consultation and this further demonstrates that the changes are proportionate as well as needed. Street Trading received a very low numbers of written responses with 4 respondents.

    Officers have considered and agree with most of the comments received on investing in attracting more people to the area, more outdoor seating, attractions near markets and scattered sites, using technology to cut down administration costs, incentives for traders on food safety/other, events and recruitment of new traders. We had already begun working on all the above over the last two years, and the fee increases will speed our capacity to deliver improvements. Street Trading is working with partner teams on improving highways repairs, working with traders on wastewater and oil disposal, and bringing in new footfall through themed markets such as the recent refugee market, the youth markets and black owned business markets held in 2024. These rises are cumulatively below an inflationary rise year on year given that the last increase was 11 years ago in 2014.

    Officers accept that there are some differences between markets on pricing, utility usage, commodities sold and community benefit and will look at discretionary reductions based on commodity types that bring social value as soon as is feasible.

    Officers see other points raised around impact of COVID19 and footfall as general to inner London rather than Islington specific, and desktop research on comparable markets and street trading charging shows that Islington will still be the most cost effective and best value place to trade in inner London.

    Given the above, the recommendation made to committee and approved, was to proceed with the revised fees and charges in full.