Lidl is keen to build housing...

Lidl is keen to move to larger premises in the Sid Valley - as covered on the VGS news blog:
Lidl is keen to expand in Devon > Is it interested in the Sidmouth garden centre site? - Vision for Sidmouth

It seems they are also keen to build housing...

So, if Lidl were to move to the garden centre site and free up their current site in Woolbrook - would that mean they would develop this for housing?

As forwarded by a local correspondent: 

Lidl to build wave of new homes

1 AUGUST, 2018
BY ZAK GARNER-PURKIS

2 COMMENTS



Budget supermarket Lidl is to deliver schemes with the potential to create an extra 3,000 new homes in London over the next three years, the company has announced

According to the AJ’s sister title Construction News, the discount supermarket said it had already helped build 335 homes in the UK through new store projects and had a further 476 in the immediate pipeline.

Lidl said it was also planning a series of new mixed-use schemes as it increased its presence in the South-east through developments featuring offices, hotels and student accommodation. The company cited a project for a new store in Richmond with a primary school built above it.

Lidl chief executive Christian Härtnagel said: “We’re also proud that our stores are increasingly helping to pave the way for mixed-use developments. To date, our stores have supported the creation of over 800 homes […] and we’re entirely open to exploring opportunities to help facilitate further developments. In London alone, for example, there is the potential for Lidl stores to be part of schemes that could see over 3,000 new homes being built over the next three years.’

Responding to the news Russell Pedley, director and co-founder at Assael Architecture, said: ’Blending retail use classes with residential is going to become increasingly vital in urban locations throughout the UK. Lidl’s plan to deliver 3,000 homes is testimony to the shifting approach to city planning and urban housing development. Due to the rising cost of land in UK cities, developers are looking to intensify land-use and open up alternative income streams to help underwrite their central asset.

He added: ’Amid a housing crisis, it makes sense for councils and local authorities to encourage retail developers to integrate homes into their projects, keeping the ‘high street’ vibrant. We need to ensure the use classes are blended appropriately, not simply thrown together

‘While this trend is likely to continue in the UK, we need to ensure that the quality of housing delivered alongside these retail outlets is top shelf, as well as affordable, and that the use classes are blended appropriately, not simply thrown together.’

Lidl also plans to build a 1m sq ft regional distribution centre in Hertfordshire, with its facility forming part of a wider site comprising 5,000 houses, three primary schools and a further 1m sq ft of commercial and retail space.



Lidl store within scheme at Alperton by Boyes Rees


Lidl to build wave of new homes | News | Architects Journal
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