Nabeel Khan has, since February, had one of the most exciting and daunting jobs in London. As the inaugural chief executive of the Oxford Street Development Corporation (OSDC), he is, in his own words, “responsible for delivering the long-term regeneration, activation and stewardship of one of the most important destinations in the world”.
The transformation of Oxford Street, including through pedestrianisation, has been a major ambition of Sir Sadiq Khan since he first became Mayor in 2016. Good progress was made during his first two years at City Hall, only for Westminster Council, a key partner at the time, to take fright in the face of resident objections just before the 2018 borough elections and abruptly withdraw its support for the plans.
Since then, much has changed. Oxford Street, along with the wider West End, suffered badly during the pandemic, leaving many empty shops and an air of dilapidation and fatigue. In 2022, Labour won control of Westminster Council for the first time in the local authority’s history and painstakingly assembled plans for improving Oxford Street that eschewed pedestrianisation. But just as these were about to start being put into effect, the Mayor announced his intention to take control of the area and push pedestrianisation through.
The OSDC is the vehicle for that ambition. Nabeel Khan came on board following several years at Lambeth where, among other things, he developed the council’s growth plan and was involved in its promotion of “active travel” and the shaping of the Waterloo Station Masterplan. He’s also been a non-executive director of Barking & Dagenham’s Be First regeneration company, and between 2012 and 2020 held a variety of economic development roles at City Hall, including securing the devolution of the adult education budget from national government.
My podcast co-host London Society chair Leanne Tritton and I were very pleased to lure him on to the show at such a busy time in the project. As we heard, the section of the mile-long road now dubbed Oxford Street West, which stretches from its junction with Great Portland Street to its junction with Orchard Street, is expected to be closed to traffic “by the end of October” but that will be just the start of the process.
An ongoing “live test” of the road will inform what is required in terms of a its final design, taking on board accessibility, public safety and the sorts of things visitors enjoy doing in the new, traffic-free environment. Meanwhile, the OSDC is gearing up to become the planning authority for area, taking powers away from Westminster Council and, to a much smaller extent, next-door Camden. Added to Transport for London becoming the transport authority for Oxford Street itself, this will cement mayoral control over the future of the OSDC area.
The OSDC already has powers to make Compulsory Purchase orders and grant Business Rate relief. Nabeel made the point that mayoral and also governmental development corporations (such as Ebbsfleet) have varying sets of powers and said the OSDC has “the full suite”. The OSDC board has set up its own planning committee. Chaired by board member Margaret Casely-Hayford, it is made up mainly of independent members plus representatives of the two boroughs. The OSDC will, like a local authority, draw up its own Local Plan, a process that could take up to two years.
Meanwhile, two design teams have already been chosen. Landscape architects East will lead the way on the Oxford Street West phase, with input from other companies including Gehl, J & L Gibbons and Publica. The other team will work on a “whole street concept” and be led by Hawkins\Brown, with Urban Movement, Michael Grubb and more in support.
There will be tensions and trade-offs involving the area’s very many interested parties, ranging from businesses, to pedestrians to local residents. Discussions are already with the two councils about how future Section 106 payments from developers will be spent.
All of that is to come. For now, our talk about London guest is clear in his view that the beauty of mayoral development corporations is that they bring “a single guiding mind to a regeneration project in a local area”. Watch the full show below or listen to it here.
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