M&S given green light by Angela Rayner to demolish Oxford Street store

Marks & Spencer has been given the green light to demolish its flagship Oxford Street store, ending a fierce three-year planning battle over the art deco building.

The housing secretary, Angela Rayner, ruled on Thursday that the plans could go ahead.

The retailer wants to rebuild the store as a nine-storey building housing a retail space, cafe, gym and office.

Stuart Machin, M&S’s chief executive, wrote on X on Thursday: “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.”

He said the business could “now get on with the job of helping to rejuvenate the UK’s premier shopping street” through the flagship store.

The building, named Orchard House, was constructed in the late 1920s on the corner of the UK’s most famous shopping street, by Marble Arch in London.

M&S, which opened the store in 1930, applied to Westminster City council for permission to demolish Orchard House in 2021.

The plans have since been dogged by court cases and opposition from heritage and sustainability experts, culminating in then-housing secretary Michael Gove stepping in and eventually refusing the application in July 2023.

But, earlier this year, a high court judge ruled that the government made a series of flawed decisions while trying to block the plans.

On Thursday, Rayner granted permission for the building’s demolition and reconstruction.