Aldi Offers To Pay To Help Planning Process As It Accelerates Expansion
German grocery discounter Aldi has had talks with Downing Street over planning reform and investing in the planning system as the rapidly expanding grocery chain looks to accelerate new store openings across the UK.
Aldi UK’s national real estate director, George Brown, visited No. 10 in late August, he revealed in a LinkedIn post, as he said that the retailer is offering investment to address “under-resourcing” across the country’s local authorities, which he said means that the planning application process can take over a year.
“It was a pleasure to be invited to No. 10 today to discuss planning reform with Nick Williams, senior special advisor to the PM,” Brown said in the post. “Obtaining planning consent for new Aldi schemes can take us over 12 months due to under-resourcing in local authorities. We will happily invest in the application process to help speed that up.
“A new Aldi store is also a significant job creator in local communities, delivering some of the top salary levels in retail,” he added.
Brown argued that retail should be given additional weighting in the planning approval process because retailers typically deliver a greater number of jobs compared to alternative business uses such as industrial, storage and distribution, classed as B2 and B8, respectively.
“To unlock significant investment in the UK economy this needs to change,” Brown said.
Aldi said it will invest more than £90M in store improvements this year as it aims to ensure the “shopping experience is on a par with the high-quality products,” with more than 30 of its stores undergoing refurbishment over the summer and more than 100 set to receive upgrades before the end of the year.
The investment comes after Aldi said earlier this summer that it aims to open at a rate of a store a week until Christmas, taking its UK total to more than 1,040 stores after a slower rate of expansion in the first half of this year. Aldi has become the fourth-largest UK grocer by sales, with growth at 0.8% for the 12 weeks to 9 June and a total market share of 10%, according to data from Kantar.
In another planning impasse, Marks & Spencer is calling on Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner to approve plans to demolish and rebuild its Oxford Street flagship. She is reviewing the proposals, which were blocked by Michael Gove under the previous administration.
Marks & Spencer wants to demolish its flagship site near Marble Arch to build a contemporary 10-storey retail and office block, and it reacted furiously when it received the Gove verdict.
M&S boss Stuart Machin called the decision “laughable” and “utterly pathetic.” He threatened to exit Oxford Street completely if it was not allowed to redevelop the site.
