John Lewis faces fresh defiance from Ealing residents over build-to-rent tower
The John Lewis Partnership is facing further resistance from Ealing residents over the retailer‘s attempt to erect a build-to-rent tower of 428 homes over a Waitrose supermarket in the west London borough.
A campaign group, Stop the Towers, has made fresh calls to the council urging it to listen to residents’ concerns and reject the application after an official public consultation on the plans saw 96 per cent of respondents object to the development.
Stop the Towers is also demanding a halt to plans from Tide Construction to build 448 student flats on the site of a Majestic Wine store next to the Waitrose West Ealing. In a consultation on that project, more than 98 per cent of respondents rejected the plans.
Justine Sullivan and Denise Colliver, co-chairs of Stop the Towers, said: “Residents of West Ealing support appropriate and proportionate development that will genuinely benefit the local community but the plans proposed by John Lewis and Tide Construction will not deliver this in any way, shape or form.”
“We urge Ealing Council’s planning department to listen to residents’ concerns and reject both applications.”
A John Lewis spokesperson, told City A.M: “As we’ve seen from last week’s Rightmove data, the demand for rental housing continues to rise.
“The number of people asking to view each rental property that becomes available in Britain has more than tripled in the last four years.
They added: “We’re proposing to bring much-needed rental homes on a brownfield site, which can help tackle the shortage, and are continuing to work through the comments received as part of the planning process.”
A venture into the residential market is part of the outgoing chair Dame Sharon White’s plans to diversify the partnership, with a target of 40 per cent of group profits to come from non-retail ventures by 2030.
The owner of the department store chain and Waitrose supermarkets wants to construct 428 build-to-rent homes in Ealing and erect a similar scheme in Bromley.
But concerns from locals have been bubbling away for some time, mostly over the scheme’s lack of affordable housing and how it will contribute to over-development.
At the weekend, Nina Bhatia, the partnership’s strategy, told The Telegraph that its commitment to the venture was “unwavering”.
It came as White’s looming departure raised questions about whether John Lewis would scrap the plans..
The future of the residential scheme is just one of the many stumbling blocks the near-century old business has faced in recent months, as the company battles stalling sales fuelled by changing post-pandemic shopping habits and roaring inflation.
City A.M has contacted John Lewis, Tide Construction and Ealing Council for a comment.