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John Lewis has won the first planning approval for its venture into house building, with a green light to add 350 flats on top of a Waitrose store in outer London.
The London borough of Bromley late on Thursday signed off the retailer’s application for the four-acre site near Bromley South railway station. The new development plans keep the Waitrose supermarket at ground level, and add three residential blocks of between 10 and 24 floors, totalling around 320 rental flats and 30 affordable homes.
The grant of planning permission is a win for John Lewis, which owns Waitrose, in its efforts to make better use of its extensive real estate holdings to build housing alongside retail outlets.
“This is a milestone for us,” said Katherine Russell, who leads John Lewis’s rental housing strategy. “The unique thing about building for rent is that homes do not need to be sold off and this means a new project can come to life quickly.”
Asset manager Abrdn will help finance the development as part of a £500mn joint venture with the retailer to put pension fund money behind building 1,000 homes. John Lewis plans to own and run the rental housing itself.
The approval comes months after John Lewis and Waitrose scrapped targets to make almost half of its profits from initiatives such as build-to-rent by 2030 introduced by its departing chair Dame Sharon White.
The retailer has insisted, however, that its foray into property development was still a key plank of its strategy after it promised to “unashamedly” focus on retail as it attempts to turn its fortunes around. Some retail analysts have previously branded its property ambitions as a distraction for the group.
Other retailers have joined John Lewis in trying to branch out into housing. Asda struck a deal with housebuilder Barratt in May to develop 1,500 homes on a supermarket site near Acton.
Building on previously used “brownfield” sites is a key priority for the main political parties in order to deliver badly needed homes within towns and cities. These projects are seen as more politically acceptable than development on rural “greenfield” land, but they still frequently face obstacles from local opposition.
John Lewis last month launched an appeal against the council for a similar project in Ealing, claiming the local authority had taken too long to deliberate.
Local groups had complained that the new development was too tall and did not include enough affordable housing.
In Bromley, however, 109 objections from locals were outweighed by 144 statements in support of the development.
Russell Pedley, co-founder at Assael Architecture, who designed the buildings, said politicians should encourage similar projects. “Planning has been too dysfunctional for too long. Brownfield development is inherently complex, and there will always be opposition. But taking bold decisions like this will be critical if growth is to be delivered.”
