Sir – I write with regard to Oxford City Council’s desire to increase the rents in the Covered Market by between 50 and 70 per cent.
The city council is not a business but a body that should work on behalf of people living, working and visiting Oxford.
The plan to raise the rents in the Covered Market is a prime example of short-termism that will lead to empty units, as has occurred in Golden Cross, thereby potentially reducing overall income and, moreover, destroying one of the few places in central Oxford where the label ‘any town Britain’ does not apply.
The Covered Market and its long heritage are an asset to the city that is under threat from accounting thuggery, whereby the wider socio-economic value of a vibrant and original market are elided against the supposed costs of lost revenue from tenants who could afford to pay more rent. Do we want thriving local businesses in Oxford, or corporate chains?
Richard Kuziara, Oxford
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