Small businesses enticed back to Oxford Street with 6m free rent deal

Westminster City Council hopes to work with landlords to take over nine stores
Councillor Geoff Barraclough
Matt Writtle
Miriam Burrell19 July 2023

Small businesses are being offered six months free rent to take up shop in London’s famous Oxford Street as Westminster City Council looks to restore pride to its beleagured high street.

London’s flagship shopping district has become littered with American-style candy stores, that began springing up in 2017 and have been described as an “eyesore” by council leaders.

The council is instead hoping to fill the spaces taken up by “low quality” stores with up to 35 small businesses keen to reach a larger audience.

The campaign is aimed at businesses looking to launch their first store or physical space. Selected brands will be given a prime store location for an initial six-month period, rent-free and with a minimum reduction of business rates of 70 per cent.

The scheme, in conjunction with business consultants New West End Company, is estimated to cost more than £10 million. The first store is expected to open in autumn.

Stores will either be available for single occupancy or as a “themed concept store” shared between multiple brands.

Councillor Geoff Barraclough said there has been “indicative expressions of goodwill from landowners that suggest that [stores] shouldn’t be a problem to find”.

He told the Standard: “There’s an element of pride in this, of fixing our High Street.

“But there will be more interesting shops with more interesting things to come and look at. It’s great to come to Zara and Primark and IKEA but also it’s interesting to see some new and different brands that will sell things that you normally can’t get in the shops.”

Successful businesses will have to “offer something unique” and “have the potential to go on to launch a long-term store independently”.

Brands will receive store design and mentoring from independent retail consultations Someday Studios.

The council said previous pilot schemes such as with Lab Tonica founder Kitty McEntree and sustainable children’s clothes brand Petit Pli have proved that the model works successfully.

Mr Barraclough said: “Six months might be good market research [for businesses] and then they might decide to get back online with a more diversified offer.

“One of the traders from last time moved to Selfridges and took a concession or they may be doing so well that they actually say, ‘Well, actually we can stay, we can pay commercial rent’ - that would be the best outcome.”

New facelift for Oxford Street
Westminster Council

Westminster council’s much-anticipated proposals show wider pavements, redesigned crossings and new trees for the mile running from Tottenham Court Road to Marble Arch.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in