// Westminster City Council called for a “stronger” economic crime bill and reform of business rates to put an end to American candy and souvenir stores littering Oxford St
// In the last 15 months, the council has recovered £1 million worth of items that were deemed suspect are either fake or potentially dangerous within the stores
Westminster City Council has called for a much stricter economic crime bill and reform of business rates to officially bring a halt to American-style candy and souvenir shops that continue to “litter” Oxford Street.
Councillor Adam Hug has told City AM: “We are dealing here with a sophisticated operation which is skilled at exploiting UK legal loopholes”, adding that there’s a “glaring lack of governance” around setting up companies such as the candy stores in the UK with only “cursory checks on who the directors are”.
Last month, an LDC survey found that there are now 29 candy and souvenir stores open on Oxford Street, the same number of stores as there were at their peak in 2020, with Hug cited.
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Westminster has been attempting to crack down on these stores that have become a “brutal eye sore in the capital’s most popular shopping district”. It said that it’s “harder to get a local authority library lending card than to register a company at Companies House”.
In the last 15 months, the council said it has recovered £1 million worth of items that were deemed suspect are either fake or potentially dangerous.
During the pandemic, Oxford Street became swarmed by a large number of American candy stores opening as retailers shuttered stores, with these illicit stores often now occupying three retail outlets in a row.
“Westminster City Council has energetically pursued unscrupulous traders who sell unsafe or fake goods and fail to pay business rates, but we have always maintained this is a whack-a-mole activity,” Hug said.
The council has also called for a reform of the business rates which would allow for more frequent revaluations, with stronger information requirements to reduce the level of appeals made by these shops.
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