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Marks and Spencer has been given the green light for the redevelopment of the M&S store at Marble Arch.
After a three-year battle, deputy prime minister Angela Rayner has approved the plans for the retailer to rebuild the store after they were initially submitted to Westminster City Council in 2021.
Plans were initially approved by the Council but heavily opposed by heritage and sustainability experts, until former housing secretary Michael Gove refused the application in July last year. Then, earlier this year the High Court ruled that Gove had committed some mistakes while trying to block the plans.
The Marble Arch store currently resides in Orchard House, a 1920s Art Deco building which will now be demolished to make space for a 10-story mixed use development. The new building will include a new M&S store, offices, a café and a gym.
M&S argues that the new building will be amongst the top 1% of new buildings in London on sustainable performance, and that the redevelopment would have “significant” sustainability advantages over a refurbishment, which would use more carbon and leave the building’s structural flaws “unremedied”.
Stuart Machin, M&S CEO, 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.
“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.”
