Re your article (Where did all those US sweet shops in London come from? The problem is, we don’t know, 4 July), Cllr Adam Hug is right to sound the alarm over the spread of American sweet shops along Oxford Street. However, his suggestion that further legislation is required before the problem can be adequately addressed misses that this phenomenon is yet another symptom of the death of the high street, a problem for which Westminster council already has a solution within its power: pedestrianisation.
Oxford Street remains polluted and overcrowded thanks to its heavy footfall; with 70% of visitors arriving via the underground, vehicular traffic serves mostly to drive consumers away rather than as a means of transporting them to the businesses that have so greatly suffered over the trials of the past two years. In July 2021, Westminster council itself estimated that the (now recently opened) Elizabeth line would bring an additional 60 million pedestrians to the West End a year, further exacerbating the issue and making the need for change all the more urgent.
It is only through a radical revitalisation of Oxford Street that there can be any hope of legitimate businesses thriving in an area that commands some of the highest rents and business rates in the country; dropping rates for temporary pop-ups is neither sustainable nor a viable way for the council to recover the income lost to rates evasion.
The same Conservative council that failed to investigate the prevalence of American sweet shops and dubious souvenir shops abandoned plans to construct temporary pedestrianised “piazzas” in late 2021; Cllr Hug ought to make the most of his newly won majority and resurrect these plans without delay, rather than relying on long and tedious tax investigations to do the job for him.
James Pollard
London
• In his reference to “shell companies” and not being able to identify the real owners of these sweet shops, Adam Hug does not have to wait for the Economic Crime Act to become law. Since 2016, all companies registered in the UK must supply details of the real people who ultimately own them (their beneficial owners) to Companies House. These details are available for free on the Companies House website through the Register of Persons With Significant Control (PSC). When Hug’s colleagues are granting trading licences to the companies operating these sweet shops, they can check the PSC register for the beneficial ownership details. Even if the ultimate owners of the sweet shop operating company are foreign individuals, they should still be listed on the PSC register. It is not only Westminster council that should carry out a check on the real owners of a business but any local council granting a trading licence.
The Economic Crime Act sets up a register of the foreign owners of real estate in the UK, a welcome development. It will help Hug and Westminster council identify any foreign owners of property on Oxford Street and elsewhere in the city, but he implies that he already knows the owners’ identities. It is the real people behind those operating the sweet shops that he is after. The tools are already available to identify those who are trying to hide.
Michael Barron Michael Barron Consulting, Tim Law Engaged Consulting
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