Eight years after throwing out plans from Tesco to build a supermarket-with-flats scheme, Hackney Council has done an about-turn and drawn up its own plans for a similar scheme that it now wants the retailer to develop.
The site, at 55 Morning Lane, E9, to the east of Mare Street, comprises a Tesco and car park and is ideal for redevelopment as a mixed-use scheme, similar to that proposed by Tesco at its Love Lane site in Woolwich, SE18 (pictured).
The council has sketched a basic design, with buildings of five to 15 storeys and as many as 446 homes, along with 180,000 sq ft of commercial space, including a supermarket.
Its ambition for the site is not too far removed from the refused plans submitted by Tesco in 2008. They were for a supermarket and 134 homes above.
However, the number of homes was revised down to just 113 following imposed design changes by the council.
So, will Tesco be enticed back by this new vision from the council? While Hackney is dangling a scheme that would provide four times the number of homes offered by the 2008 plan, it is not clear whether Tesco will take the bait.
The retailer’s most recent project completed a couple of years ago, and it has nothing new in the pipeline. The most recent activity from Tesco’s redevelopment arm, Spenhill, was the sale of 14 sites to Meyer Bergman last year in a move away from supermarket/residential redevelopments.
However, Tesco chief executive Dave Lewis this week revealed that the retailer was keen to sell air rights above its stores and had identified 15 sites, mostly in London, for disposal. These will be offered on a subject-to-planning basis, where house builders take on the planning risk.
The plan is part of a radical new strategy by Lewis to overhaul its property portfolio, raise as much as £1.5bn and do its part in helping to solve the UK’s housing crisis.
So is Tesco making a development comeback? Maybe, although it has said that it has no plans to redevelop the Morning Lane site. It is in talks with the council over the site’s inclusion in the local authority masterplan, however.
And while Hackney’s about turn – albeit a slow one – may not stack up for Tesco, it does show that local councils are concerned about London’s housing crisis. And trying to do something about it.
