Tesco to ramp up housebuilding plans

Supermarket giant Tesco is gearing up its current housebuilding plans to develop schemes in the south east, Ipswich and Gateshead.
The scheme, according to a report in today’s Times, will be mixed-use housing and retail, featuring scores of homes, all near a Tesco store. The retailing giant is reportedly keen to take advantage of a recovery in the housing market, which has seen prices rise by around 10% since last April.

It is also keen to take advantage of traditional housebuilders’ failure to raise money from banks, which has forced many developers to build smaller schemes.

The “mini-villages” are due to be built in Bromley-by-Bow, East London, Dartford, Kent, Streatham, in South London, and Woolwich, southeast London. Consent has been granted for a scheme in Ipswich that will have some flats and since 2007, Tesco has planned to redevelop a site in Gateshead.

Tesco first developed affordable homes in Kensington, in partnership with the local housing association, in 1997.

However, Tesco told housing and property website WhatHouse.co.uk that talk of ‘mini-villages’ is wrong. While it admits that it is investigating plots for potential mixed-use developments, including new build homes, in areas such as Dartford, Kent, Streatham, and Woolwich, among other parts of London, it says that this is nothing new.