When it comes to the planned redevelopment of its flagship store on London’s Oxford Street, Marks & Spencer is not taking Michael Gove’s intervention lying down.

Many years ago, I was having lunch with a London office agent who mentioned in passing that he’d just been appointed on a new office development on Oxford Street.

My words of congratulation were met with a roll of the eyes and the explanation that “no one really wants an office on Oxford Street.” His take was that neither occupiers – nor their visitors – relished the process of ploughing through a sea of shoppers and tourists to get in and out of an office. “It doesn’t scream quality, does it?”

I was reminded of his views a few years later when a group of Qatari investors led by Amanda Staveley took over the Park House development at the west end of Oxford Street. Ironically, given more recent events, the scheme was built across the road from the M&S flagship and when unveiled was trumpeted as the “largest office development in Mayfair for a decade.”

Leaving aside, for a moment, the question as to whether Oxford Street can ever really feel like part of Mayfair, the Park House scheme made halting progress. The street level retail units let with ease, but by 2015 – two years after completion – only around 15% of the 165,000 sq ft office component had been let.