The John Lewis Partnership (JLP) has received planning consent to transform its Waitrose site in Bromley into a new residential community of 353 build-to-rent (BTR) homes alongside a modernised store.
Local people will be prioritised for the new one-, two- and three-bedroom homes, which will be developed, owned and managed by JLP.
The scheme will also feature shared areas for fitness, home-working and socialising, new public green spaces, a café and amenity spaces for local community groups and schools to use, as well as cycle and pedestrian links through the site linking it to the High Street and surrounding area.
Katherine Russell, director of BTR at the John Lewis Partnership, said: “This is a milestone for us and follows a significant amount of work locally to create a scheme that really responds to the needs of the community. The unique thing about building for rent is that homes do not need to be sold off and this means a new project can come to life quickly.
“The opportunity here for institutional investors is huge and this scheme alone will bring in more than £200m of capital investment to the area, generating around £70m of local spending over 10 years. We were determined to ensure that a quarter of the site was open space and it was pleasing to receive far more letters of support than objections.
“The mood towards development is certainly changing and I absolutely welcome moves from Rachel Reeves and Angel Rayner to speed up planning and encourage more brownfield sites, such as this, to come forward. Supporting more schemes like this will be critical to delivering growth this parliament.”
James Dunne, head of operational real estate at abrdn, which has a £500m joint venture with JLP to deliver around 1,000 new homes across three local communities, including Bromley, added: “Well designed and professionally managed rental homes are a vital component in helping to solve the UK’s housing needs. Build-to-rent on brownfield sites such as this can also act as an anchor for town centre regeneration and wider community investment. We look forward to continuing working closely with JLP to move forward with our strategy.”
Russell Pedley, co-founder of the scheme’s architect Assael Architecture, said: “Planning has become increasingly challenging over the years due to both the complexities of major projects and the number of agencies involved. But as we have seen with other BTR projects for Legal & General, Grainger and TfL, demand for rentals is growing and having brands like JLP in the mix can only be a good thing if the government wants to attract major capital in to the sector, as referred to in Kate Barker’s updated recommendations this week.”
Wesley Ankrah, head of social value at Savills Earth, added: “This is a positive and important result that primarily drew more local support that opposition because JLP had conducted significant community engagement, listening to what many people wanted from the town centre regeneration. This isn’t just about the creation of homes, but also about creating a diverse space that that will benefit the local area. The basis of this sort of project is to ensure we create new communities, which is the kind of concept that councils should be championing up and down the country.”
