Yahoo Finance Oxford Street revival to ‘peak’ next year as West End recovers from candy store scourge
The number of new businesses and customers flocking to Oxford Street is expected to “peak” next year as the iconic retail drag puts the finishing touches on its face lift.
Over the last year, the popular tourist and shopping destination has been repairing its reputation after a slew of illicit American candy stores infested vacant properties when retailers exited the street during the pandemic.
In efforts to drag the dodgy retailers out, Westminster City Council said it would make shops vacated by the candy stores, which have blighted the leading retail destination, available to small business owners rent free and lower their business rates by 70 per cent.
Speaking to City A.M, Sam Foyle, director of retail at Savills said that everyone has been looking at the street “really positively” and there are currently 15 deals from businesses under offer at the moment.
He said: “I think for the consumer when they walk the street it looks a lot better. The candy stores are gone and you’ve got a lot of investment from new brands taking space.”
Foyle said that this strong momentum will “peak” next year when these deals close and new brands continue to take space.
He added: “There are still a number [of brands] that haven’t opened yet that have either or are just about to sign, one of those being Uniqlo they have just signed for 25,000 square feet by Tottenham Court Road station.”
In the past 12 months, 11 new brands including Footasylum and Pandora have opened stores in the eastern area of the street, and HMV just made a return to Bond Street after a four year hiatus.
Despite fears that shoppers are steering clear of spending due to the cost of living squeeze, new figures show that the Christmas period has managed to drag customers back to the high street.
According to new data by TFL entries and exits at Oxford Circus station were 27 per cent higher on Black Friday than on average for each of the previous four Fridays.
Footfall has also risen sharply in the West End, with Shaftesbury Capital, owner of Seven Dials and Covent Garden, recently revealing footfall was up 12 per cent year-on-year.
“The continued draw of physical retail was evident across the Black Friday weekend, which saw queues of shoppers waiting in line to snap up the best deals,” Dee Corsi, chief executive of the New West End Company, said.
“Little wonder then that the Saturday was the West End’s busiest day of 2023 so far. In what is a milestone for the district, the Saturday was also able to reach pre-pandemic footfall levels – coming in slightly higher than the Saturday after Black Friday in 2019.”
Foyle credits the resurrection of Oxford Street to the 40 per cent cut in business rates which was introduced by the government over Covid – however this measure has since been reduced to only serve smaller businesses.
“The key driver has been the reduction in business tax which the government has introduced on Oxford Street by up to 40 per cent and that is a huge occupier cost saving for brands.”
However, the retail expert said that a failure to reintroduce VAT shopping – also known as the tourist tax- for international tourists is the only drag on the district’s recovery.
He said: “That’s my one negative at the moment is that we’re not seeing the cream and the real benefit of London because people are being put off by the tourist tax and we’re seeing the likes of Paris and Milan benefit significantly from that.”
