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Marks and Spencer’s may once again see plans for its new Oxford Street flagship store delayed, this time due to the general election, according to This is Money.
The news comes after the group was hopeful that its plans to rebuild its Oxford Street store would be approved by ministers “very, very soon” but now will have to wait until a new government is formed.
The Oxford Street site was expected to make way for a 10-storey site by demolishing the 1929 art deco building near Marble Arch in London, with the plans previously blocked by Michael Gove and the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities.
According to a Freedom of Information disclosure, a total of £141,000 of taxpayers’ money has been spent on legal fees in the planning dispute which was eventually overturned in March after High Court Judge Mrs Justice Lieven ruled against Gove stating that he had made several errors in his interpretation and application of planning policy.
An M&S spokesman told This is Money that the scheme “would deliver a much-needed boost for Oxford Street and send a clear message to developers that regeneration of our towns and cities is a clear priority”.
