Oxford Street ‘hardest hit in Europe by Covid’, says Westminster council leader

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Oxford Street is in danger of being swamped by US style candy and tourist tat shops after being hit harder than any other major shopping destination in Europe during the pandemic, Westminster council’s leader will warn on Wednesday.

Rachael Robathan is due to say that “the decline of Oxford Street will continue” with more low grade stores or empty sites unless urgent steps are taken to revive it in a hard hitting speech at Wednesday evening’s full council meeting.

She will say that despite “beacons of hope”, such as the opening of the Elizabeth Line in the summer and the arrival of Ikea at Oxford Circus, the street faces an uncertain future.

The tone of the speech is in contrast to forecasts from business group New West End Company (NWEC) that spending in the area will rebound to pre-pandemic levels of around £10 billion by 2024.

NWEC’s boss Jace Tyrrell, chief executive of New West End Company, which represents about 600 businesses, said last week that the opening of the Elizabeth Line will “turbo charge our recovery”.

But Ms Robathan is likely to paint a far more downbeat picture in her speech and is set to say: “Oxford Street is Europe’s hardest hit high street – it saw an average decline in footfall of 71 per cent at the height of the pandemic. And let’s be honest, this was against an already challenging backdrop of a changing retail market leading to a number of businesses moving out of the area altogether.”

She will add: “But, as I have told council repeatedly over the past two years since I became Leader, this matters not just for businesses, but for residents too. Nobody wants to live in an area with empty shops – that goes for Oxford Street as much as it goes for Oxford.

“Nobody wants their local high street to be filled with questionable candy or tat shops. But more importantly, nobody wants to see the loss of jobs which would come with a long-term decline of an Oxford Street District filled with empty or derelict buildings.”

Last month the council unveiled a £150 million plan to upgrade parts of the West End including Oxford Street by widening pavements and changing traffic flows.

Footfall on Oxford Street is still only around 70 per cent of pre-pandemic levels with tens of thousands of commuters still preferring to work from home, especially on Mondays and Fridays.

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