Save Britain’s Heritage calls for urgent planning policy reforms after ‘short-sighted’ M&S decision

Save Britain’s Heritage are calling for urgent reform to national planning policy following Angela Rayner’s “short-sighted” decision to approve Marks & Spencer’s plans to redevelop its flagship Oxford Street store.

The campaign group which led the fight against the Pilbrow & Partners-designed proposals in a 2022 public inquiry said the high-profile case had revealed “gaping holes” in the UK’s national planning policy on embodied carbon emissions.

The proposals, which were first approved by Westminster council in 2021 before becoming embroiled in a three-year planning battle, will see the site’s existing 1930s building torn down and replaced with a 10-storey office scheme. 

Save had objected to the plans on heritage grounds but also on their carbon impact and the precedent this would set for future demolish and rebuild projects.

> Also read: Heritage, sustainability, and dysfunction: the lessons of the M&S decision

> Also read: Rayner backs M&S’s Oxford Street plan to demolish flagship store

The group said: “It’s time policy caught up with widespread public and industry opinion. There is still no national policy on embodied carbon emissions from buildings, despite the built environment accounting for a quarter of the UK’s total greenhouse gas emissions – and the UK’s legal commitment to reducing emissions.

“We need clear rules and a level playing field so that building owners or developers  think twice before demolishing reusable buildings. Many developers see the potential of re-using buildings, but want clear guidelines and parameters – not a policy vacuum.”

The charity is calling for reforms to national planning policy which would strongly prioritise reusing historic buildings, end permitted development rights that allow speedy demolition permits and require projects to count carbon emitted during the construction of buildings.

Embodied emissions from the demolition and construction of buildings equates to 40 to 50 million tonnes of carbon each year, which is more than emissions from aviation and shipping combined.

Save director Henrietta Billings said: “These are big numbers that can be tackled. Rethinking our wasteful knock-it-down-and-start-again approach to development and reusing and updating existing buildings like M&S Oxford Street is a win-win. It’s good for the planet and it’s good for our towns and communities.”

She added: “No-one is suggesting these buildings are pickled in aspic – it’s a pro-growth approach. Restored and transformed buildings have turbo-charged regeneration all over the country, everywhere from Tate Modern in London to former department stores in Bournemouth, Bristol, Edinburgh and Gloucester”.

Meanwhile, Tyler Goodwin, founder and chief executive of developer Seaforth Land, said he saw “clear commercial benefits” in reusing historic buildings.

“Save’s M&S campaign has been a defining case for the property industry at a critical moment in history,” he said. “Tenants are relying on their office space to win the war for talent and to earn their commute back to the office, and we are seeing a material shift in demand for best-in-class buildings that can offer a unique, authentic, and sustainable office experience that a generic glass box just can’t provide.”

Rayner’s decision, announced yesterday, was welcomed by M&S chief executive Stuart Machin who said it came after three years of “unnecessary delays, obfuscation and political posturing at its worst”.

Pilbrow & Partners’ founder Fred Pilbrow added: “Naturally, I’m delighted by a decision which is manifestly long overdue. As Stuart Machin commented, we can now get on with the job of helping to rejuvenate the UK’s premier shopping street. This is a positive result for M&S, for regeneration and for environmental sustainability.”

Former communities secretary Michael Gove called in the scheme in June 2022 and finally rejected it in July the following year. This was appealed by M&S and the application went to the High Court, which quashed Gove’s refusal in March this year, when it was sent back to the office of secretary of state now held by Rayner.