Asda chairman Lord Stuart Rose has slammed Michael Gove’s decision to block M&S’s redevelopment plans for its Marble Arch flagship.
The former M&S chief executive told The Telegraph: “I cannot for the life of me understand why he wants to intervene on this particular building.”
Gove rejected the high street retailer’s proposals that would see the Art Deco building housing its Marble Arch store demolished last month.
The communities secretary said M&S’ plans failed to support the transition to a low carbon future and risked harming the area’s heritage.
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Lord Rose said: “Why Michael Gove wanted to stick his sticky fingers into it is a complete loss to me.
“What Marks & Spencer wanted to do was completely sensible. It’s a very difficult store to lay out and, quite simply, the store is not fit for purpose.”
Gove’s decision has sparked conversations among retail leaders about the current state of Oxford Street.
Watches of Switzerland chief executive Brian Duffy said the street was turning into a “national embarrassement”.
There is “no question that more needs to be done” to revive the West End shopping destination, he said.
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3 Comments. Leave new
M&S should consider pulling out of this store and focusing on their Pantheon store further along Oxford Street.
Surprise, surprise the capitalist fat cats don’t want any restraint on their freedom to discuss what they like, regardless of what the rest of society wants.
M&S had an option to do a Battersea Power Station, and rebuild the M&S Oxford Street facade, just as the chimneys were rebuilt at Battersea. Same is happening at the old Odeon Cinema in Kensington. Instead its CEO has a typical corporate fetish for tedious steel and glass and seemed determined to turn the only good thing about Oxford Street, its architectural uniqueness, into yet another mundane any town.
I meant do what they like, not discuss – auto correct at work!