M&S wins four-year fight to rebuild flagship London store
The retailer, which had reacted angrily after being previously knocked back, says the new building will safeguard 2,000 jobs.
Marks & Spencer has been told it can demolish and rebuild its flagship London store, 18 months after its plans were blocked by the previous government.
Deputy Prime Minister and Housing Secretary Angela Rayner ruled the scheme – a new 10-storey development with a smaller M&S store and other facilities including offices – could go ahead.
It will see three buildings on Oxford Street knocked down.
The company reacted with fury 18 months ago when then-housing secretary Michael Gove rejected the recommendations of planning inspectors.
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The Conservative government said then that the public benefits of the company’s plans were “offset by the potential harm to nearby heritage landmarks”, namely the Selfridges department store nearby.
It also criticised the environmental impact of the redevelopment.
The 1929 Art Deco building near Marble Arch had reached the end of its life, M&S had argued, and threatened to pull out of the site altogether.
The company had told the government that such a decision would have been another nail in the coffin for London’s premier shopping street which, at the time of the planning row, had more than 40 stores lying vacant.
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Its chief executive, Stuart Machin, described that decision as “laughable” and “utterly pathetic”.
It was reconsidered after the Conservative government was on the wrong end of a High Court judgment in March that the grounds for Mr Gove’s decision were unlawful.
