Tescos ever tightening grip on the finances of the nation’s public looks set to get a little tighter. Taking advantage of the fledling property market recovery, Tesco plans to build four ‘mini-villages’ in the South East and ‘mixe-use living and leisure schemes’ in the North East and Ipswich according to the Times.
The centre of these developments will of course involve the presence of a Tesco store.
With a lack of either government, local authority or other private enterprise action to fill the void that is the UK’s current house building programme, one can see the authorities smiling on this albeit through gritted teeth.
With no finance forthcoming from the help banks to finance house building you can see the attraction of a huge company like Tesco stepping up to the mark with the readies prepared to fill that gap.
Moving to the area and buying a Tesco house you are likely to use a Tesco estate agent, Tesco mortgage service and Tesco conveyancer and then kit your house out from the local Tescos. And you can even get a job, in your local Tescos. Almost a throwback to the 1800s.
Tesco it seems are going to help us build our way to victory.
The question is though, in the long run will the price of being forced by geography to spend your earnings in the Tesco stores be a price worth paying? Let’s hope the authorities ensure competition by ordering the allocation of equal space to competitors.
Another alternative is a succession of towns across the UK, Tescoville, Asdaville, M&Sville and Morrisonville. Each based around a monopoly with local government beholden to the local store manager for funding.
Strange that, just as we are learning that casino banking and high street banking are not the same, we are considering handing over our long term housing requirements to the supermarkets. Is this another lesson we are doomed to learn?
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Tags: business, economics, News, supermarket, Tesco
How do Tesco get so powerfull? By lying through their teeth in every planning application, by using the other building on site to pay for the cost of building their store, by coming back again and again and bullying the planning officers whilst threatening the Local Authority with costs if they are refused.
Help by GVA Grimley who appear able to define the legislation on behalf of DCLG whilst also doing the Supplementary Planning Documentation for the Local Authroity and the Retail case for the applicant – guess who TESCO.
Its not just politics that needs cleaning up its planning too which is rife with self interest. PPS 1 says it is the right of the community to decide the future shape of their environment, that’s just words on paper whilst public concerns are ignored or rode roughshod over. Communities should have the same rights of appeal as the applicant and the Council and legal aid to permit them to fight for the survival of their towns and villages – because now having filled all the Highy Street sites, or stored them away in their landbank, they are invading every little market town and village see Bovingdon, Halesworth, Padiham and Sherringham.
If Tesco are permitted to run riot over the UK they will not only have more power to bring us down than the banks but they will have descimated all our communities on the way. Yiewsley and West Drayton expect the death sentence next spring when the new superstore opens. The Council’s own Town Centre Retail Assessment clearly found that no increase in retail space could be justified in either of our towns – so this store will kill off both our High Street. A picture which is repeated everywhere esco open an edge of or outof town store or one that is grossly over developed for the space justified by need.
Welcome to a capitalist system.
The councils do a lousy job anyway. Tesco’s do it for the best reason, to make money and thus will ensure that they give the service that is required to the customer.
Competition is good for the customer, drives prices down and service up. Councils have for years stopped big stores openning and now with the recession they have to do what we have done for decades. Hold their socialist noses and take what they can because nobody else is going to give it to them.
The planning system does need an overhaul. Why should some beurocrat decide what I can build on my property? Why should they set up funds from your money to fight planning applications from firms like Tescos because they don’t want a Tescos and we do.
If people feel so strongly about it then they can boycott Tescos and it will close. Tesco isn’t going to build where it is not going to make money. That is it’s achilles heel. Don’t buy from them if you don’t want them.
Times change, we move with the change or we cause social problems. Councils should keep out and let the people make their choice.
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