West End landlords told to force out American candy stores at the centre of tax evasion investigation

Oxford Street landlords have been told to "up their game" to force out American-style candy stores at the centre of a tax evasion investigation. 

Westminster Council is currently investigating 30 US-style sweet shops which have taken prime locations in the West End in recent years, and are accused of business rates evasion. The council claims the 30 stores have failed to pay £7.9m in taxes, pointing to a situation where the tenants set up shell companies which quickly dissolve and make it difficult to recover debt using bailiffs or insolvency action.

Nickie Aiken MP, who represents Cities of London and Westminster, told landlords to actively turf out tenants at the centre of the claims, warning that more shoppers were choosing to visit other London retail hubs over the West End.

She said: "There should be a lot more rigour in the way they check out their tenants. Landlords need to take responsibility because Oxford Street at the moment is just looking less and less appealing."

Ministers have been considering a crackdown to force companies to be more transparent in filings, and Ms Aiken said she was hopeful this would be taken over by the next prime minister.

However, she said it was "not just all about government legislation and there is also a role for landlords to play".

Ms Aiken added: "There's huge competition to Oxford Street from Stratford and Shepherd's Bush [where the two Westfield shopping centres are located], so landlords on Oxford Street really have to up their game because if they want the footfall they need a better offer."

Recent figures have suggested footfall in Oxford Street is still down 30pc on pre-pandemic levels, compared to around a 14pc decline across the wider retail sector.

Major department stores on the landmark shopping street closed their doors since the start of the pandemic after struggling with plunging footfall during lockdowns, including Debenhams and House of Fraser.

Westminster Council has been growing increasingly concerned around the proliferation of US-style sweet stores filling the gaps, with landlords seeking to avoid paying business rates themselves on the empty stores. They let the stores to intermediaries which then let them to the souvenir shops or candy shop owners. Westminster Council leader Adam Hug earlier this year branded the stores a "threat to the status and value of what is supposed to be the nation’s premier shopping street". More recently, some of the sweet shops have begun morphing back into suitcase shops in an effort to avoid wider scrutiny.