CAPRICE From babe to businesswoman - Mayfair Times

The New West End Company is a business improvement
district (BID), funded by retailers and property owners. It has a
brief to improve the trading environment in the West End.
Westminster City Council is a long-term Conservative stronghold.
Now, the Mayor of London is a Tory too.
What this means, says Richard Dickinson, recently appointed
chief executive of the BID, is that there is “an opportunity to push
our agenda in a more politically benign environment”.
That observation is as diplomatically worded as one might
expect from a former Brussels civil servant but the ulterior
meaning is clear. With Ken Livingstone out of the way, there is a
chance to reinvigorate the West End in time for the international
scrutiny that will accompany the 2012 Olympics without having to
worry about differences in political philosophy.
The mayoral race may have attracted international press
coverage but local politics in London is so multi-layered and
under-reported that it would have been easy even for the
interested to miss the decisions and events that have led to what
is beginning to look like a period of dramatic change.
So, to catch up a little:
� The two BIDs in the West End (the other is the Heart of
London Business Alliance, centred on Leicester Square) were
both voted in for second terms by businesses that fund them
through a business rate supplement. What this means is that
businesses (which are not allowed to vote in Westminster City
Council or Greater London Authority elections) now seem willing
to pay to have a say in the way the West End is run. They have,
as the Americans say, stepped up to the plate. The BIDs, on the
other hand, have shot past the talking stage and in the early part
of their second terms they need some quick wins. With the next
general election due to take place on or before May 10, 2010, so
do Boris and his chums in the shadow cabinet.
� In March, Westminster City Council adopted the ORB report –
an action plan for Oxford Street, Regent Street and Bond Street
based on the New West End Company’s initial vision for the three
key retail thoroughfares outlined in its masterplan. The £40 million
ORB plan aims, among many other things, to reclaim the West
End for pedestrians. The money is there, Westminster is working
in partnership with the BID and Transport for London and the
TIM IRELAND/PA WIRE/PA PHOTOS
BORIS JOHNSON’S VICTORY
OVER KEN LIVINGSTONE IN THE
RACE TO BECOME MAYOR OF
LONDON HAD ONE IMMEDIATE
AND NOT VERY OBVIOUS
EFFECT: IT ALIGNED, PROBABLY
FOR THE FIRST TIME, THE
POLITICAL INTERESTS OF THE
MAJOR FORCES FOR CHANGE
IN THE WEST END. ERIK BROWN
CONSIDERS THE IMPLICATIONS
action plan is already under way. Expect to see international
marketing, more events, better signage, a reduction in traffic and
a zero tolerance attack on petty crime.
� The Crown Estate is in the middle of a £500 million
redevelopment of Regent Street, which is working spectacularly
well partly because an estate in single ownership is easier to drive
forward than one in multiple ownership. As a result, The Crown is
sending powerful signals to the many owners of less successful
retail districts – such as the eastern end of Oxford Street running
up to Tottenham Court Road. If those owners could act together
(through something like a BID, for instance) they may increase the
value of their properties. This “come-together” message is being �
A change is
gonna come
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business