Oxford Street Development Corporation holds first board meeting

The Oxford Street Development Corporation (OSDC) met at City Hall this week to hold its first board meeting where it approved its working framework, draft budget, and made appointments to senior roles.

The OSDC area covers the whole of Oxford Street along with streets either side including a large part of Fitzrovia south of Goodge Street.

It is the third mayoral development corporation in London. The London Legacy Development Corporation (LLDC) for East London delivered the Olympic Park area while the Old Oak and Park Royal Development Corporation (OPDC) is leading changes brought about by the HS2 and Crossrail projects in West London.

The Mayor of London has worked with the Government to pass legislation establishing the OSDC to drive forward his plans for the transformation of Oxford Street. The body took effect on 1 January this year.

A separate consultation on the designs for pedestrianising Oxford Street is running until 16 January.

Sir Sadiq Khan has appointed Nabeel Khan as chief executive of the OSDC on a salary of £200,000. Khan recently worked for Lambeth Council, leading the Growth and Environment department and its kerbside strategy.

He was a non-executive director at Be First, an urban regeneration company that delivered more than 1,000 affordable homes in East London. The company is a wholly owned, independently run arm of Barking and Dagenham Council.

Nabeel Khan supported the delivery of the UK’s first multi-storey light-industrial workspace, Industria. He is expected to take up the post in the weeks ahead. Meanwhile, the interim chief executive is Phil Graham, executive director of good growth at the Greater London Authority (GLA).

The Mayor appointed retail veteran Scott Parsons as OSDC chair. Parsons was chief executive of Westfield and is currently chief of Lysara. He also worked as head of property at Landsec and was a non-executive director for the New West End Company.

Each financial year the 13 board members will receive a basic allowance of £14k while the chair will get £30k, according to agenda papers.

The chair can also claim an additional £4k in “responsibility allowance” while other members can claim an extra £2k per year. The OSDC will also establish a Planning Committee, pending parliament’s approval, and sitting members are eligible for £6k-a-year allowance. The committee’s chair will receive £16k. All will be able to receive an additional allowance.

According to agenda papers, these figures are in line with pay levels for other MDCs in London. Meanwhile, no board member can claim more than £24k in expenses in any one financial year. The chair cannot claim more than £40k.

According to the OSDC’s expenses and benefits framework, staff will have access to some of the benefits being offered to GLA staff. Graham said during Wednesday’s meeting these were “completely standard” policies for City Hall and MDCs.

OSDC board and staff members, however, do not have access to the GLA’s staff pension scheme or non-monetary benefits.

The board is responsible for determining the OSDC’s expenses and benefits scheme. Expenses will be routinely monitored by the director of finance and corporate Operations. These rules are based on those used by the GLA and other MDCs but have been “adapted to reflect the requirements of OSDC”.

Details about the OSDC’s budget will remain under wraps for the meantime. According to documents, discussions around the 2026-27 draft budget will be held behind closed doors due to its “confidential nature”. This is because the information concerns the financial or business affairs of the authority, which is exempt by the Local Government Act 1972.

Last year, the Mayor invested £4.7mn of the 2025/26 budget to the project. Any outstanding funds will be moved into the coming budget. Another £3.3mn was allocated by Transport for London. A final budget is set to be approved in March 2026.

Agenda papers show there is a moderate risk the project will have insufficient funding to meet the costs of public realm and transport changes. There are also some concerns about a lack of interest from commercial partners and lacklustre fundraising.

These are being mitigated through the development of a commercial strategy to reduce reliance on GLA funding and identifying “cost-effective” routes to deliver the project. It is also carrying out early engagement with businesses and organisations and is developing offers that will make a partnership with the OSDC more attractive to private investors.

The OSDC is also holding a behind-closed-door meeting on its shared services agreement and GLA contracts proposed to be transferred to the new body.

The board approved the Mayor’s proposal to hand the New West End Company, a business improvement body, non-voting rights. The organisation has nominated its chief executive Dee Corsi for the role. Elliott Ball, GLA’s group finance and performance director will sit on the board as an observer.

The Mayor has appointed OSDC board members to represent the relevant local authorities, including council leaders Richard Olszewski for Camden Council and Adam Hug for Westminster City Council.

He has also appointed Stuart Love, chief executive of Westminster City Council and Manisha Patel, Westminster City’s director of strategic projects.

Other board members include: Dr Margaret Casely-Hayford CBE, Howard Dawber OBE, Es Devlin OBE, Keith Edelman, Emir Feisal, Asma Khan, Caroline Rush CBE, and Kate Willard OBE.

The OSDC Board is expected to meet again at City Hall in mid February 2026. There are plans to approve the draft budget in March and block off traffic on Oxford Street by the summer. The OSDC will also need to bolster its workfoce.

The Corporation currently relies on 10 GLA staff to run it. They will be transferred to the OSDC and the team is expected to expand to between 45 and 50 people.

A planning committee is due to be created in April when there will be a transition of planning authority powers from Camden and Westminster to the OSDC. There will also be an audit and risk committee. Sketches of the layout for Oxford Street will be presented to the board at a later date.

Board of the Oxford Street Development Corporation, Wednesday 7 January 2026. Agenda. Webcast. Press release with biography of board members.

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