Safeway has lost a rent review battle with Legal & General in the latest round of the long-running war between supermarkets and their landlords.
Safeway attempted to challenge arbitrator Graham Chase’s decision to take into account a premium paid on a comparable property when he set its rent to L&G for a Sheffield store at £17.66 per sq ft.
Mr Justice Lewison ruled that the award was a question of valuation and not a point of law, and so could not be challenged.
Safeway’s lawyer, Lovells’ Nicholas Cheffings, said: “No doubt the debate on premiums will continue to rage, but not through the courts.”
The dispute is part of the wider battle between supermarkets and landlords over whether premiums count as rents. Landlords have argued that supermarkets, which pay premiums up front to secure premises, should have to face uplifts at rent reviews based on those premiums.
Last year Chase did not take a premium into account in a dispute between British Land and Sainsbury’s, because he said only one retailer, and not the market as a whole, was prepared to pay it.
References: EGi News 06/02/04
