NABMA is delighted to announce that Malcolm Veigas of Bradford and Krys Zasada of Manchester have been invited to undertake the Policy Framework project scheduled for 2008. This work will be undertaken in conjunction with NMTF and ATCM.

A response from FARMA is currently awaited. It is also anticipated that Cheltenham and Gloucester University will contribute significantly to the project and NABMA is confident that the outcome of the project will lead to a major piece of research, linking markets with a number of mainstream policy areas.

The Policy Framework was launched in the summer at a well attended All Party Parliamentary Markets Group and was welcomed as an important initiative by the market industry. Hopefully the research project will give markets a much higher profile on the national stage and will demonstrate the value of markets as a local authority service.