Last week, the Government confirmed the 75 local authorities awarded revenue funding to support local plan preparation and delivery under the new Plans for Neighbourhoods scheme. With funding now available, the task isn’t just to dust off old plans—but to sharpen, adapt, and deliver them with renewed purpose. Having supported several towns in developing their Long Term Plans under the previous administration, we’ve learned a few things that may help.

Today’s market halls are facing mounting challenges. Their Victorian grandeur belies an uncomfortable truth: many are underused, underfunded, and increasingly irrelevant to modern audiences. 

They need bold thinking. Investment. And tailored strategies that reflect local need, not national templates. We work with councils and communities to reimagine their markets—not just cosmetically, but operationally and financially. We help towns unlock funding, build business cases, and create market halls that serve as vibrant, inclusive places once again.

Based on local feedback, the vision features a blend of modern and craft retail, fresh food offerings, a new food and drink area with communal seating, and flexible co-working spaces, all aimed at supporting the town’s small business community.

As part of the early planning stages, Next Phase, on behalf of East Staffordshire Borough Council, is inviting expressions of interest from prospective operators and tenants who share this vision for a revitalised Market Hall. At this preliminary stage, expressions of interest will help assess the level of interest and inform initial discussions around potential site operations ahead of any future procurement process.

As consumer habits have changed, traditional markets have faced mounting challenges, becoming a pain point for operators since the turn of the millennium. As such, the question of ‘who should manage the market?’ is increasingly coming to the fore.

Today marks the official launch of Next Phase, a pioneering consultancy launched to redefine the property landscape by introducing creative and exciting solutions to new projects and bringing new life to vacant and underperforming properties to transform local communities.

In my last piece, I focused on the large city-based food halls with their unique locations and impressive size, imagining them akin to the few football teams with the resources to chase Champions League glory. Hoping not to take this analogy too far, in the UK we have the FA Cup, the greatest football competition of all, where teams from cities, towns, villages and suburbs across the country get a chance at the big time. In the food hall world we have some smaller local food halls that punch well above their size and location and, on the right day, with the loyal support of their fans, can create a giant-killing upset.

When considering the future, it is always sensible to consult the past. In my opinion, two openings from 2014 played pivotal roles in shaping our modern food hall scene. One is Time Out Market Lisbon, a 32,000 square-foot food hall with 900 covers, 26 kitchens, eight bars and cafes and five shops. The other is Altrincham Market in Greater Manchester, a converted market hall of no more than 6,000 square feet with 180 covers, six kitchens, two bars and a coffee shop.