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Nigel TAYLOR Published
October 9,长沙U币支付选项 2025
John Lewis Partnership (JLP) is pushing ahead with its long-term property-to-rent scheme that will see the retailer aiming to “unlock the potential of [its] brownfield sites… in providing much-needed housing”.
That’s despite earlier news that it's chairman Sharon White, who introduced the not-overwhelmingly-popular plan, being set to quit at the end of her five-year term. However, JLP said Monday the "commitment to this new venture is unwavering, no matter who is at the helm of the Partnership".
In an interview with the Daily Telegraph, JLP executive director for strategy and commercial development, Nina Bhatia, said the business owns a sizeable and valuable property estate [and] “some of it can be used to develop much needed quality housing, particularly in areas with well-located brownfield sites”.
She added: “Our estate gives us the opportunity to unlock brownfield land for house building for local communities. By renting this housing to people, particularly the ‘squeezed middle’, we can help provide a quality, long-term rental option, including affordable housing”.
It will also mean creating “responsibly managed homes for the long term – not selling them off”, she noted.
Although the UK has an urgent need for new housing, the plan has been criticised for diverting JLP’s focus away from retail at a time when its John Lewis and Waitrose chains have been underperforming.
Bhatia gave no new numbers of how many properties would be built and a timescale, but she noted that initial sites for development are located in London “where a third of people now rent”.
The retailer said it sees rental housing as a way to “help improve local communities. It will create jobs and new communal spaces, and local residents can benefit from a new Waitrose shop”.
And of course, every Waitrose store is also a John Lewis department store click & collect location.
The Build to Rent business is being partnered by investment giant Abrdn with a £500 million investment aiming to create 1,000 homes. John Lewis’s hopes are that this could account for 40% of the group’s profits by 2030.
JLP’s latest half-year figures for the period to July showed the company is still loss-making, although those losses narrowed in the latest period. However, it admitted that its turnaround will take longer than originally planned due to inflation.
Losses before tax and exceptional items fell from £66.8 million to £57.3 million, a 14% improvement. And losses before tax narrowed by 41% from £99.2 million to £59 million. Sales topped £5.8 billion in the half, up 2% year-on-year.