Stronger BID will improve Oxford Street, says study

New laws are required to force Oxford Street freeholders to contribute to a private sector body charged with boosting the ailing shopping street. This was a key recommendation of the mayor’s West End central retail planning and development commission on Tuesday, which wants a single, private sector-led body to “oversee redevelopment of the area and its management”. The group, headed by former Land Securities chief Ian Henderson, suggests “shared ownership pools, which would enable management of the retail tenant mix”. This could be done by extending the powers of the local business improvement district, the New West End Co, the report says. It wants government to amend BID legislation so that landowners, not just business occupiers, can fund them and play a more formal role. The report says that Oxford, Regent and Bond streets and the surrounding area are “at a turning point” and warns of a “very real risk that institutions, landowners, and retailers and other occupiers will stop investing”. The area contains more than 16m sq ft of retail floorspace – over half of central London’s total – employs over 30,000 people in shops and accounts for more than £4bn of retail spend a year. Most urgent is the need to improve the east end of Oxford Street, where a more powerful NWEC could lead the revamp, the report says. Henderson said: “It would be very positive if we could get some sort of wider limited partnership ownership of some of the areas. A single landlord is better able to manage an estate and get the right tenants in.” The commission also calls for better co-ordination between Westminster and Camden councils, the mayor and Transport for London. It says “a good start” would be for TFL to appoint a single officer as a central point of contact for West End transport issues. Ken Livingstone backed the proposals. “Both Westminster and myself are willing to use compulsory purchase powers to assemble substantial holdings at the eastern end of Oxford Street,” he added. New framework The 90-page report also recommends: ● a new planning framework to give landowners confidence ● section 106 money to be used for transport and public realm, rather than housing ● encouraging large, flagship and distinctive shops as well as hotels, cinemas, theatres and restaurants ● re-examining the viability of an international convention centre