Angela Rayner has given the all-clear for the demolition of the flagship Oxford Street Marks & Spencer store.
The deputy prime minister has granted permission for M&S to demolish the 94-year-old shop at Marble Arch in a decision published today.
Plans to knock down Orchard House, which dates to the 1930s, and two other buildings, and replace them with a new 10-storey mixed-use building comprising retail, café, restaurant, offices and a gym, were first submitted to Westminster council back in 2021.
But they were rejected by then levelling up secretary Michael Gove, and then overruled after M&S took the decision on the 456-472 Oxford Street site to a High Court judicial review.
Now Rayner has drawn the long-running row to a close as she confirmed the proposals could go ahead in a ruling which cited “the significant employment and regeneration benefits offered by the M&S proposal”.
M&S CEO Stuart Machin said: “I am delighted that, after three unnecessary years of delays, obfuscation and political posturing at its worst, under the previous government, our plans for Marble Arch – the only retail-led regeneration proposal on Oxford Street – have finally been approved.
“We can now get on with the job of helping to rejuvenate the UK’s premier shopping street through a flagship M&S store and office space, which will support 2,000 jobs and act as a global standard-bearer for sustainability.”
M&S reaction
He added: “We share the government’s ambition to breathe life back into our cities and towns and are pleased to see they are serious about getting Britain building and growing.
“We will now move as fast as we can.”
However, opponents decried the move, with Henrietta Billings, of SAVE Britain’s Heritage, branding it a “missed opportunity”.
She argued: “Reusing buildings is great for the planet, great for communities – and it’s also great for growth.
Just look at the cultural powerhouse that is Tate Modern, or converted department stores across the country, or the great Pennine textile mills that are once again a driving force in their local economies as commercial space or homes.
“It is wilfully myopic not to see that the elegant M&S building could play a similar role in the story of Oxford Street, whose fortunes are already on the up.”