Farmers’ markets offer a greater range of fresh fruit and vegetables and although they are more expensive than street markets, they still charge 11 per cent less than supermarkets. Markets also generate more jobs per square metre of retail space, according to a report from the New Economics Foundation.

The think-tank’s findings are based on a study of the Queen’s Market, in Upton Park, East London, a typical street market, which is under threat from a proposed Asda redevelopment. The report says that 80 per cent of its customers shopped there because of the choice of goods and low prices. Researchers found that items bought from the market were, on average, 53 per cent cheaper than at a local Asda.

Customers spent an average £34 each time they visited Queen’s Market, of which £25 was spent on food, the report said. This generated about £11.5 million for the local economy each year, in addition to an estimated £1.8 million spent in nearby shops.

The report challenges planning policy by describing the site as a “microcosm of the dangers of basing regeneration policy on supermarket expansion, from the real employment impact of supermarkets to the threat to consumer choice”.

It comes after an earlier report from the foundation, Trading Places, commissioned by the London Development Agency, which found a basket of fruit and vegetables bought at Lewisham street market was 34 per cent cheaper than at the local supermarket. A survey at Walthamstow showed that produce was 29 per cent cheaper than at the local supermarket.

Farmers’ markets at Marylebone and Ealing offered fruit and vegetables costing 11 per cent less than equivalent items in the nearest supermarkets.

Guy Rubin, a researcher for the foundation, said that street markets provided vital revenue for local economies, ranging from £500,000 to £13 million a year. “The irony is that because the value of markets has not been quantified until now, planning decisions are being taken around the country that are undermining the small enterprises that can prevent us becoming a nation of clone towns.”

The report was commissioned by the Friends of Queen’s Market.

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