Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free
Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.
Sadiq Khan has said local residents should not be “dictating” plans for Oxford Street as he promised to push ahead with pedestrianising London’s main shopping street with or without support from locals and Westminster Council.
The Mayor of London restarted his years-long effort to banish vehicles from the central artery last year — something the council has opposed in the past — after the UK Labour government granted him new powers to drive the project through the Mayoral Development Corporation.
“What history tells us actually is that [it is] residents on either side of Oxford Street, who live in marginal wards, who are saying no to pedestrianising,” Khan told the Financial Times.
“My view frankly speaking is that this is a street of strategic national importance, and it shouldn’t be a handful of residents on either side basically dictating what can and can’t happen.”
He said investors and developers need greater certainty that their projects will move through the UK’s complex system of planning approvals and will not be derailed by local opposition.
Khan, who spent 12 years as a local councillor on a planning committee, said too many developers worked hard to secure backing from planning officers and council leadership, only to find their plans scrapped at the last minute “because 40 people have signed a petition and an individual councillor has a majority of only 50”.
He pledged to use his new powers to push ahead with the Oxford Street project without the council’s backing if necessary.
“We’re hoping to work with the council . . . and it’s going well so far,” he said, but “if the council is nervous about taking on the residents, I’ll take the flak. Because there are some things that are more important than short-term local popularity”.
Khan backed reforms set out last week by the UK government to specify that more planning applications should be determined by professional planning officers, with fewer cases referred to committees made up of local politicians.
Westminster Council has opposed pedestrianising Oxford Street in the past, citing practical issues around traffic, public transportation and access for disabled people. Much of the street is already closed to traffic except buses and taxis for most of the week.
The mayor launched a public consultation on the new corporation and the “principle of pedestrianisation” last month. At the time, Adam Hug, leader of Westminster Council, said it had “fought hard to secure numerous improvements from the Mayor of London” to meet the needs of residents and businesses.
Khan said the changes were badly needed for Oxford Street to compete with global shopping destinations and to help major retailers fight off the challenge from ecommerce and shopping centres.
“We have got a choice. We can let online and shopping malls just take all the trade away from Oxford Street so that all you’ve got left is American candy shops and poor quality shops there, or we can actually think about how we bring it back to life.”
The mayor was speaking on the margins of a major property industry conference in Cannes last week, which he attended for the first time in nine years as mayor to promote investment in London from overseas financiers.
