It has been a stellar year for mid-market retailer Marks and Spencer Group PLC (LSE:MKS), with last week’s decision by deputy prime minister Angela Raynor to overturn a block on M&S’ Marble Arch store development plans the cherry on top.
Raynor’s decision ended a three-year legal dispute brought by former Tory secretary of state for housing Michael Gove, which was today slammed by broker Shore Capital Markets as a “disgraceful episode” representative of the “uselessness of Tory regime”.
Objections to the redevelopment were two-pronged.
Environmental concerns centred around the concept of ‘embodied carbon’, i.e. the amount of greenhouse gas emissions associated with the demolition and redevelopment of the site.
Gove and co-objector Save Britain’s Heritage also cited concerns about the impact that development will have on heritage assets, specifically the neighbouring Selfridges store.
They contended that a refurbishment rather than a full redevelopment would allay both of these concerns.
Ultimately these objections proved insufficient to survive the new political regime; Gove’s successor Angela Raylor overturned her predecessor’s block on the redevelopment last week.
M&S boss applauded Raynor’s decision, stating: “We can now get on with the job of helping to rejuvenate the UK’s premier shopping street through a flagship M&S store and office space, which will support 2,000 jobs and act as a global standard-bearer for sustainability.”
Shore Cap’s retail expert Clive Black was less diplomatic in its shakedown of Gove’s “disgraceful episode”.
Black stated: “If folks needed one example in future times of the bizarre, uselessness of Tory regime under May-Johnson-Truss-Sunak, then the terrible waste of time and money by Michael Gove around the redevelopment of Marks & Spencer’s (M&S) Oxford Street store should stand the test of time.
“The redevelopment went through due process ending up unnecessarily clogging up the court system due to the personal whims and fancies of Michael Gove, of whom some would state was at the more intelligent end of the Conservative regime.”
“An unlisted, tired, and not fit-for-purpose building can now be a focal point of the rejuvenation of north-west Oxford Street. Hurrah!” he added.
If readers took this missive as a vote of confidence in the Labour Party, don’t be so fast.
“The (Labour) Budget was an exercise in ideology meeting naivety and stupidity, many in UK business feeling justifiably duped by the Chancellor, in particular,” said Black, adding: “Most particularly, the lack of any serious statements or intent to improve the productivity of public bodies and their supposed servants has really frustrated, to put it mildly.”
Politics aside, Black said it was “a good week for M&S”. On top of the Marble Arch approval, M&S also completed the redevelopment of its Cribbs Causeway store in Bristol “to very good effect”.
“Having walked the store last week, Cribbs looks well set to have a very good Christmas time to us, as does M&S it should be said, especially in grocery, where we are quite confident for an industrywide decent December.”
M&S shares are currently trading near eight-year highs of 394.3p per share.