M&S's Oxford Street HQ gets the green light- three years too late

Thank goodness for that. Finally- after far too much delay- the right decision has been made about the Marks and Spencer building on Oxford Street. And let’s be clear: this was the right decision not just for the regeneration of Oxford Street, but in environmental and heritage terms as well.

In many ways, the M&S project, designed by Fred Pilbrow of Pilbrow & Partners, suffered from bad luck and unfortunate timing. In bringing together an alliance of heritage and sustainability campaigners, it became a cause célèbre for a retrofit-first campaign looking to make its mark.

But the project should never have become a test case, as the campaigners' claims flew in the face of the facts. 

The project team had looked at a wide range of options for the building, including both light touch and heavy refurbishment, as well as new build. M&S commissioned Arup to undertake a whole life carbon (WLC) assessment, which gives the most accurate picture of a building's carbon impact on the environment, factoring in the all-important embodied carbon of a structure. This is the approach to assessing sustainability championed by the UK Green Building Council (UKGBC) in its roadmap for the built environment to achieve net zero.

That WLC report found that new build (not retrofit) was the most sustainable approach. This is because over its life span, the highly sustainable energy efficient new build will save significantly more carbon when compared to the inefficient carbon intensive older structure.

Campaigners dismissed this evidence, seemingly oblivious to the irony of arguing for retrofit on the basis of climate science, while ignoring the evidence produced by building sustainability experts when it didn’t suit their narrative. 

As for the heritage arguments, well, the building is not listed and was excluded by Historic England from surrounding Conservation Areas, suggesting the architecture is of limited merit. In planning terms, the building was not worth saving on heritage grounds.

For these reasons the project had been approved by Westminster Council and the Mayor of London, until it was called in by the then secretary of state Michael Gove, who eventually refused it, against the advice of his own planning experts.

M&S rightly challenged this decision in the High Court, which found in favour of the retailer. Now, Secretary of State Angela Rayner has seen sense, followed expert advice, and made a decision based on evidence.

Long may that continue. 

Retrofit first is undoubtedly the right approach, but it does not and should not mean retrofit only. We now need a more nuanced debate that accepts that in some instances new build is the better option, while continuing to underline the importance of refurbishment and creative reuse.

We also need to better capture embodied carbon in the planning process to ensure greater clarity and certainty for all.