M&S’ proposal to redevelop its Marble Arch store has today (5 December) been granted approval by the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government.

The upmarket retailer originally submitted a planning application to redevelop the store in March 2021, but faced a series of delays under the previous government.

In July 2023, former Secretary of State Michael Gove rejected the plans which would see the Art Deco building on London’s Oxford Street demolished, leading to the retailer launching a planning appeal in February of this year.

M&S CEO Stuart Machin 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.

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“We share the government’s ambition to breathe the 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.”

The proposals were rejected by Gove over concerns that public benefits would not outweigh the harm to nearby landmarks and conservation areas.

They were also blocked as a result of the scheme’s carbon footprint and its failure to reuse existing sources, such as converting the current buildings.

However, according to M&S, it is not possible to retrofit it into a new, modern flagship store due to the site’s complexity, with it being made up of three different buildings of various heights, sizes and age.

The proposed new building, which has a design life of 120 years and carbon payback within 11 years of construction, will also be among the top 1% of new buildings in London on sustainable performance, using less than a quarter of the energy of today’s structure and with 95% of the existing site materials recovered, recycled or reused and the water consumption halved.