John Lewis runs into trouble over first housing project

By

Nigel TAYLOR

Published
Mar 9, 2023

John Lewis Partnership’s build-to-rent property project is facing some resistance and delays. The plan to build 430 flats in towers up to 19 storeys high in Ealing, west London, is already months behind schedule, according to local residents.

It comes as real becomes a much tougher market to make money from. And given John Lewis’s ethical profile, objections of the sort being raised right now don’t make great PR for the firm.

The leader of the local council, Peter Mason, has raised a number of concerns, including the proposed height of its planned tower blocks and the lack of affordable housing, the Times newspaper reports. Opposition is also being tabled by local pressure group ‘Stop the Towers’.

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John Lewis originally aimed to put in the planning application for the Ealing project by December 2022 after a public consultation was launched last July. But it has yet to be filed, the report claims.

The Ealing project is one of the first big tests for the retailer’s chair Sharon White and her diversification plan that aims to target 40% of group profits from non-retail sectors by 2030.

John Lewis aims to build, furnish, rent out and maintain 10,000 homes within a decade, and last year signed a £500 million joint venture deal with the fund management group Abrdn.