Lord Lee of Trafford, pictured being welcomed by NABMA President Elect Councillor J Gareth Jones, gave the keynote presentation to Nabma’s Showcasing Markets seminar at Birmingham highlighting his own involvement in the markets industry and commenting on his company’s refurbishment of the market at Luton.He praised the success of several local authority markets including Borough Market and Leicester and urged local councils to adopt an honest approach to the markets they operated. There are a variety of ways in which markets can be operated and recognition of the potential benefit of a public/private partnership was an issue that local authorities should address. Lord Lee spoke about his parliamentary background and urged local authorities to support the work of the All Party Parliamentary Group and particularly its newly appointed Secretary Anne Coffey MP for Stockport. He emphasized the tremendous scope that local authorities have to influence their MPs and he urged that issues affecting markets should be raised with local MPs to ensure that the value of markets is properly recognised