Oxford Street Transformation

Mayor's Foreword

Oxford Street is the nation's high street, home to iconic British and international brands and was once the jewel in London’s retail crown. However, the impact of the pandemic, growth of online shopping and other factors has left it in decline. Local leaders have made significant progress delivering improvements, such as reducing the number of candy shops and working with business and other stakeholders to bring a more diverse range of shops to the street, but I believe we can go faster and further. That’s why I am developing proposals to pedestrianise Oxford Street and turbo charge it’s regeneration, transforming it into an exciting, green and thriving destination for Londoners and tourists alike.

I want to rejuvenate Oxford Street and ensure it remains a global leader for shopping, leisure and outdoor events, competing with the likes of Fifth Avenue in New York and the Champs-Élysées in Paris.

This would help to attract more international visitors, bringing the world to London and showcasing the best of London to the world. The rejuvenation would also act as a magnet for new investment and job-creation, driving growth and economic prosperity for decades to come.

My proposals are designed to unlock the true potential of Oxford Street and deliver a world-class, safe, accessible and clean street for all Londoners. This is not only about creating a beautiful public space where people can shop, eat and connect, but transforming Oxford Street into a place that Londoners and the whole of the country can be proud of as we continue to build a better London for everyone.

I propose to set up a new Mayoral Development Corporation (MDC) to cover Oxford Street, which would have the necessary powers to support the transformation of the area.

I encourage all Londoners to get involved.

Mayor of London

Delivering change

To realise his vision, the Mayor is proposing to establish a Mayoral Development Corporation (MDC). An MDC would enable the focused, strategic leadership and coordination required to create an attractive environment for visitors, residents and businesses and drive economic growth.

The relevant local authorities, Westminster City Council and the London Borough of Camden, have made progress delivering improvements, such as reducing the number of candy shops and bringing a more diverse range of retail to the street. There have also been significant efforts to coordinate action across landowners, businesses and local councils to improve the street. Together with NWEC, the Business Improvement District for the area, Westminster City Council have delivered positive results.

However, given the surrounding areas, such as Regent Street and Bond Street, are recovering at a faster rate than Oxford Street, it is clear a new approach would help to drive transformation.

The creation of a dedicated authority that covers the full length of Oxford Street and its immediate surroundings, and which has a single-minded focus to establish it as a global leader for shopping, leisure, and outdoor events, would make a huge difference in driving transformation. Furthermore, as an asset of strategic London-wide and national importance, there is a clear role for the Mayor in ensuring that Oxford Street achieves its potential.

The role of the MDC would be to lead and coordinate work to improve the environment, expand the retail and leisure offer, and activate any new public spaces created through pedestrianisation. It would ensure a coherently designed, transformed space that could be promoted as a global retail and leisure destination.

The MDC would be carefully designed to ensure that it only takes responsibility for the minimum area required to deliver on the Mayor’s vision for Oxford Street and would only seek the powers required to achieve it, aligning where possible with existing frameworks.

On this basis, the Mayor proposes:

• to designate a new Mayoral Development Area (MDA) covering Oxford Street and its immediate surroundings to the extent necessary. This is shown in the map below. Once any MDA has been formally designated, the Secretary of State can then lay the necessary orders in Parliament to establish an MDC.
  
  
• for the MDC to take on responsibility for plan-making and the determination of planning applications, enabling the development and delivery of a single vision for the whole of Oxford Street which reflects its local, London-wide and national significance.

Map of the proposed Mayoral Development Area (Click on map for larger version)

Creating a transformed environment through pedestrianisation

Any plan to enable Oxford Street to reach its full potential risks being hampered unless changes can be made to address the crowded pavements and high levels of traffic that currently have such a negative impact on the visitor experience.

For this reason and to support the regeneration of the area, the Mayor considers that there is a compelling case for the phased pedestrianisation of Oxford Street to create a more attractive local environment and improve the quality and use of the public realm. This would begin with the area between Oxford Circus and Orchard Street, as part of a wider programme to deliver a world-class public space and would include public realm improvements to areas of the street which would take longer to pedestrianise, such as the section of the street east of Oxford Circus.

This transformation would remove most of the traffic on Oxford Street and, in turn, improve air quality and reduce road danger. It would create new opportunities for the use of the street space, including for a range of events and activations, attracting new visitors and raising Oxford Street’s profile and reputation as a destination, as well as delivering a better, more inclusive and welcoming area for residents and visitors alike.

Pedestrianisation would also be expected to drive growth and bring economic benefits. Pedestrianisation projects in other cities, both in the UK and internationally, have seen footfall and consumer spending rise, with accompanying increases in economic activity and store revenue. For example, a study on pedestrianisation in Spanish cities demonstrated that “stores located in pedestrian environments tend to record higher sales volumes than stores located on Oxford Street by nearly £82m in a year compared to a non-pedestrianised Oxford Street, while supporting an additional 781 jobs“ (GLA Economics 2024).

Pedestrianisation was first proposed by the Mayor in his 2016 manifesto, with detailed proposals consulted on in 2017, but plans were halted when the then Westminster City Council withdrew its support. The case for pedestrianisation has strengthened since then, particularly with the opening of the Elizabeth line in 2022, including two step-free access stations at Bond Street and Tottenham Court Road, which has provided further improvements in access and the opportunity to revisit and enhance the 2017 proposals.

Read more about the case for designating a Mayoral Development Area and creating a Mayoral Development Corporation for Oxford Street

Read detailed proposals for the Mayoral Development Area

About this consultation

The Mayor welcomes the opportunity provided through this consultation to set out his proposals and the rationale for setting up a new MDC, and to seek the views of the public and statutory consultees. This consultation also seeks views on the principle of pedestrianisation.

Before designating an MDA, the Localism Act 2011 requires the Mayor to consult on his proposals, and this consultation fulfils that purpose. The Mayor must also consult on whether to vest the new body with certain functions and powers relating to planning and relief from non-domestic rates.

The Act requires consultation with the London Assembly, Westminster City Council and the London Borough of Camden. If the Mayor does not accept comments from these bodies, he is required by the Act to publish a statement giving his reasons.

The Act further requires the Mayor to consult London Assembly members and Members of Parliament who represent constituencies where the proposed MDA will be located. These are:

• James Small-Edwards (AM for Hammersmith & Fulham, Kensington and Chelsea, City of Westminster)

• Anne Clark (AM for Barnet and Camden)

• Sir Keir Starmer (MP for Holborn and St Pancras)

• Rachel Blake (MP for Cities of London and Westminster)
  
  

The Mayor also welcomes the views of any member of the public, and of London businesses – particularly those that operate in or around the proposed MDA.

The Localism Act states that the Mayor may only designate an MDA if he considers that doing so is ‘expedient for furthering any one or more of the Greater London Authority’s principal purposes’. The principal purposes of the Greater London Authority (GLA) are:

• Promoting economic development and wealth creation in greater London.
• Promoting social development in greater London and
• Promoting the improvement of the environment in greater London.

The Localism Act 2011 requires that the Mayor consult particular people when making proposals to designate an MDA. These people will be contacted with an invitation to respond. The Mayor will similarly make particular efforts to consult a wider range of stakeholders – local, London-wide and national. However, the Mayor welcomes responses from any person or organisation wishing to submit one.

This consultation also seeks views on the principle of pedestrianisation. If you would like to only comment on the principle of the pedestrianising Oxford Street, and not on the proposed designation of a Mayoral Development Area and the establishment of a Mayoral Development Corporation for Oxford Street, please do so. Our consultation questionnaire includes a question to seek your views about the principle of pedestrianising Oxford Street.

The closing date for consultation responses is 17:00 on 2 May 2025.

Why pedestrianise?

Oxford Street is the nation’s high street. It is where visitors and Londoners from every part of our city have for decades come to shop and socialise. This is in part due to its retail, leisure and culture offer, but also to its unmatched transport connections: not only the Central, Victoria, Jubilee, Northern and Bakerloo tube lines, but eight bus routes and now the Elizabeth Line, which stops at Bond Street and Tottenham Court Road.

The Oxford Street area makes a huge contribution to both the local and national economy. It welcomes approximately 120 million visitors a year, 85% of whom arrive by public transport, and in 2022 it contributed an estimated £25 billion to London’s economy. That is equivalent to nearly 5% of London’s total Gross Value Added (GVA) - or 1% of the UK’s total economic output in 2022.

However, Oxford Street has suffered in recent years due to a combination of the pandemic, the growth of online shopping and other factors.

Oxford Street’s recovery from the pandemic has also been slower than both local comparators (Bond Street and Regent Street) and the wider West End and Central Activity Zone (CAZ), suggesting that visitor, investor and business expectations of the quality of the environment, amenities and retail and leisure offer are not being met. This can be seen across a number of metrics:

• Footfall: November 2024 data indicates that footfall on Oxford Street is currently at only 57% of the level seen in 2006, compared to 98% and 83% respectively for Bond Street and Regent Street.
  
  
• Consumer spend: Spend recovery on Oxford Street lags the overall West End average by 9% on weekdays, with the weekend gap widening to 16% . There has also been a 29% decline between 2022 and 2024 in inflation-adjusted spend between 9pm and 6am on Oxford Street, with a drop in spending after 9pm across all days of the week.
  
  
• Rent: New West End Company (NWEC) research suggests prime rents are down 36% in comparison to pre-pandemic peaks on Oxford Street, again below both Bond Street (-10%) and Regent Street (-24%).
  
  

This decline has a negative impact on international and UK visitor perceptions of both London and the country at large. It is clear that urgent action is needed to reverse Oxford Street’s decline and to give the nation’s high street a new lease of life.

That is why the Mayor is proposing to to work with local leaders, business and Government to regenerate Oxford Street and transform it into an exciting, green and thriving destination for Londoners and tourists alike, including through the proposed pedestrianisation of the street and improvement of the new public spaces that would be created. This consultation is about those proposals.

The Mayor’s proposals would re-establish Oxford Street as a global leader for shopping, leisure and outdoor events, competing with the likes of Fifth Avenue in New York, the Champs-Élysées in Paris and the Ginza district in Tokyo. This would help to attract more international visitors, bringing the world to London and showcasing the best of London to the world. The rejuvenation would also act as a magnet for new investment and job creation, driving growth and economic prosperity for decades to come.

The Mayor’s plans would boost the potential of Oxford Street – creating a beautiful, safe and inclusive environment where everyone can shop, eat and connect, while also ensuring Oxford Street becomes a place that Londoners and the whole country can be proud of.

Read more about the case for pedestrianising Oxford Street