Last week Dylan Jones was unsparing in his verdict on Oxford Street — “too much crime. Too many dodgy sweet shops and beggars” — and the colourful description “London’s biggest thoroughfare now looks like a disused dual carriageway in the wrong part of Eastern Europe.”
I agree with quite a bit of this analysis. It is beyond dispute that Oxford Street began to look tired even before lockdown and was struggling to preserve its much-quoted status as the nation’s high street.Is it dying? No. Has it been under the weather? Without question. However, I would argue the patient is now in recovery and with a brighter future ahead. Here’s why.
The Evening Standard reported earlier this year on council plans to spend £90 million in partnership with the New West End Company to overhaul Oxford Street.
I appreciate there may be a certain fatigue about “how it might look” artists’ impressions of Oxford Street schemes after years of abandoned plans. But the big difference is we are now making progress at pace in partnership with business and residents. We will make Oxford Street wider, greener, and more pleasant to spend time on. This programme is ambitious but deliverable, and we are committed to making it a reality by 2026.
The candy stores are an opportunist infection which developed during lockdown. Property owners who did not want to pay empty business rates let shop voids to the candy and souvenir shops which disfigure the road now.
Westminster City Council has spent much energy harassing unscrupulous owners with a mix of enforcement action — seizing £1 million worth of fake and dangerous goods in 18 months — and court action to recover £9 million in business rates arrears. The result is that the number of stores has dropped from 30 to 21, and I hope that our continued pressure will drive that number down further.
As a footnote, HMV is returning later this year to occupy its old location on Oxford Street, ousting a candy store in the process — a sweet piece of symbolism. The council has written to property owners asking them if having downbeat tatty tenants is worth the exchange of not paying empty business rates. Instead we’re offering them the chance to be part of our Meanwhile On programme of innovative pop-ups, and landlords are engaging with us and showing they want to make the change.
I appreciate there may be a certain fatigue about “how it might look” artists’ impressions of Oxford Street schemes after years of abandoned plans. But the big difference is we are now making progress at pace.
Some flagship stores have left Oxford Street; but new and popular names are back. Kurt Geiger opened last month, IKEA is returning, Dr Martens is opening a second store, the Moco art museum is opening just by Marble Arch — a proven European attraction which will work, unlike the unfortunate Mound which once stood nearby.
Dylan refers to the wider kind of attractions that Oxford Street needs — theatre, restaurants, Soho-style buzz.
I couldn’t agree more. Footfall is back up, but it is not going to be the same Oxford Street as before. Nobody can uninvent the existence of online retail; our task now is to complement that with sensible and flexible planning policies that open the way to more leisure. More restaurants, more arts spaces like Moco (for which we gave planning permission recently). Oxford Street forms part of the whole canvas of the West End.
The council has just launched a conversation for a nighttime strategy — the first ever — which is consulting with residents and businesses about how to ensure our famous West End night life balances with the needs of local people.
The council has lobbied the Government to bring back VAT-free shopping; we have called for a review of business rates to give bricks and mortars the same treatment as internet retail giants. I made clear when my administration was elected that I took very seriously the council’s role as custodian of a West End, which puts billions into the UK economy and supports one in eight jobs across Westminster.
Oxford Street is not dying, but Dylan Jones is right — no change is not an option there, or anywhere else in the West End. International visitors will vote with their boarding cards and head to Paris or Milan if we don’t compete.
I have no intention of giving ground to our rivals. This is an international city with doughty champions like the Evening Standard. With imagination and the support of our private sector partners, we will keep giving people a reason to visit the West End.
Councillor Adam Hug is leader of Westminster City Council
