Council leader pressed on market and sorting office project loans

Newport City Council has faced fresh questions over loan funding for two regeneration projects.

On Tuesday, opposition councillors pressed the local authority’s leader for information relating to the Indoor Market project and the redevelopment of the city’s former Royal Mail sorting office in Mill Street.

The Conservative group leader, Cllr Matthew Evans, said attempts to find out how much the council had received from the market deal had been met with “veiled” answers.

The city council agreed a £6 million loan to the market’s developer for the project, and a separate deal for a share of rental income.

Noting the loan is due for repayment in February 2026, Cllr Evans asked: “Why have you been reluctant to talk about this, and are you confident this will be repaid in full then?”

Cllr Dimitri Batrouni, who leads the local authority and the Labour group, rejected the claim the council was “reluctant” to talk about the deal, and said officers had complied with rules around Freedom of Information Act disclosures.

“There’s no political interference,” he added.

The leader confirmed “no profit share payments have been received” under that market deal.

Cllr Evans said the matter “was about council taxpayers’ money” and asked: “Why on earth have you been so reluctant to release this information?”

The leader described the matter as “commercially sensitive” but said the council’s governance and audit committee would receive a “confidential briefing, so they will be updated on that investment”.

Previously, the council said it had received interest payments on the £6 million loan, and defended the redevelopment as having “transformed the former provisions market, breathing new life into the listed building and offering residents and visitors to the city a great place to meet, socialise and work”.

Separately, Conservative councillor David Fouweather said the former sorting office building in Mill Street had been “completed and empty for a number of years”.

He said a loan was “initially offered and accepted” to the developer, and asked when it would be repaid.

Cllr Batrouni said the building “is not practically complete… in legal terms” and the loan would only be repayable after the project was finished.

But Cllr Fouweather said “nobody has put any pressure on this developer to move things forward”.

The leader rejected this and said officers had “applied pressure”.

He also referenced media reports which said a new occupier for the building could be in place by the spring of 2026.