Tesco to build 'mini-villages' across the UK

Tesco to build 'mini-villages' across the UK




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Tesco has been given the go-ahead to build 200 homes in South London and is planning to build three more ‘mini-villages’, according to an article published in the Times on Monday. 

The communities are due to be built in Bromley-by-Bow, Dartford, Kent, Streatham and Woolwich.
 
If given the green light, the east-London development in Bromley-by-Bow would create 400 homes, a primary school, a hotel and a park – all within walking distance of the 2012 Olympic site.
 
The proposal is a joint initiative between Tesco plc and the Thames Gateway Development Cooperation and is being put to the area’s planning committee next month.
 
However, the supermarket’s ambitions have been met with mixed responses. Whilst home affairs analysts, such as the BBC’s Mark Easton, recently stated that the UK is “in the midst of what is arguably the worst housing crisis since World War II”, others see Tesco’s proposals as doing, potentially, more harm than good.
 
Josh Ryan-Collins, of the New Economics Foundation, told the Times: “There’s a sense that they are using their market power to dominate aspects of the economy.
 
“There is a need for more affordable housing but there is a danger with Tesco’s moves.
 
“If they provide the mortgage, if they act as estate agent, if they provide a credit card, if they sell you a house, they will end up with more personal information about you than the Government.”
 
Tesco, however, adamantly refutes the claims that they are building ‘mini villages’. A Tesco spokesperson said: “The term 'mini-villages' as employed by The Times has been created by them. Our mixed use developments are not new news – Tesco has been providing mixed use developments since 1997. 
 
“Our mixed use developments create jobs, civic amenities and social housing in areas that many other developers cannot and will not invest in.  
 
“We are proud to be able to invest in these communities and to provide significant numbers of jobs to both the construction industry and the wider economy.”
 
Of course this isn’t the first time Tesco has raised eyebrows. Their practice of land banking – the system whereby a company buys up land with the intent of preventing other companies from doing so and thus controlling the market – saw the supermarket be referred to the Office of Fair Trading before a full investigation by the Competition Commission (CC) in 2006.
 
At the time the CC found that Tesco’s land bank stood at 81 per cent of the available undeveloped sites across the UK. Now it would seem then that the supermarket is raising similar concerns over monopolisation of the economy as before.
 
Tesco don’t, of course, see themselves as monopolising any markets – least of all the housing one. They argue that, other than the Olympic Park, areas such as Bromley-by-Bow don’t get the investment they need; Tesco would be creating jobs as well as social housing and bringing much needed regeneration to the community.
 
Lowri Clarke, 28, a journalist, lives in the deprived area of Bromley-by-Bow. On learning of the proposals she said: “Tesco claim to be creating jobs and helping the community. They are not a public service; they are a multi-national company and their first priority is to make money.
 
“This regeneration plan is going to displace a lot of Bow residents – many of whom have lived there for generations – and the fact that the rash of Tesco stores damages communities and small businesses is irrefutable. Life for the independent shops and businesses in Bow will be made even harder by this unwanted ‘Tesco Village’.”

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