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We are sensitive to both the opportunities created and concerns raised when we invest. We try to work with the grain of planning law and social change – embracing town-centre stores and bringing life back to declining urban areas where possible rather than building edge-of-town stores accessible only by car. We strive to balance the interests of all our various stakeholders and take a sustainable approach.

Regeneration partnerships

In the past few years, we have focused on opening stores in some of Britain’s most deprived urban areas. Working with local community groups and agencies, we have been delivering what we call regeneration partnerships. These focus on training and employing staff who have been out of work for years: single parents, older people who have been made redundant, and younger people who may never have worked.

We try to address the issues which are often seen as barriers to getting a job – low levels of literacy and numeracy, responsibilities as carers, and disabilities. We aim to assess people on aptitude rather than existing qualifications. Crucially, we promise that provided a recruit finishes the 8-12 week training programme, we will guarantee them a job. This guarantee is one that no other UK employer matches.

This year we completed two large-scale regeneration partnerships at Dumfries and Stockport and a smaller scheme in Stafford. Over the past six years we have created a total of 12 regeneration partnerships, creating 3,000 jobs and helping back into work over 2,000 long-term unemployed and disadvantaged people through the job guarantee scheme. Over the next year, we hope to open another three partnership stores, bringing the total completed to 15.

‘Tesco continue to invest in local employment opportunities and contribute to the vitality and viability of towns across the country’
Jon Ladd, Chief Executive, British Urban Regeneration Association.

Market towns

Supermarkets are sometimes accused of having an adverse effect on the high street, especially in market towns. We are sensitive to such concerns and try to address any specific issues which are raised by local communities when we invest in a new store.

Among large retailers, we have pioneered small neighbourhood stores. By linking local convenience stores to world-class distribution and supply chain management, Tesco is bringing to otherwise neglected neighbourhoods all the benefits of big supermarkets – economies of scale, prices and product ranges that are close to superstore levels.

Our experience of operating in more than 100 UK market towns suggests that we play a positive role in rural regeneration by keeping shopping local and improving the viability of surrounding businesses. Independent research in the market town of Beverley, with corresponding studies in Ludlow, Brackley and Haslemere, supports our view that Tesco stores have improved the availability of food shopping, reduced the leakage of trade away from the town centres, and improved the reputation of market towns as shopping destinations.

Ludlow

In August 2000, Tesco opened a store in Ludlow town centre, on the site of the former cattle market. At the time of planning application by Tesco in 1998, Ludlow was losing as much as 60 per cent of its convenience shopping trade to other towns in the area. Research on the vitality and viability of Ludlow town centre has concluded that our new store had no significant impact on convenience stores in the town centre. Indeed, the study indicates that our store benefits the town centre by retaining shopping which may have been lost to other towns.

Affordable housing and play area above our Kensington store.

Urban renewal and affordable housing Working with local authorities, housing associations and other community groups we have successfully delivered a number of mixed-use schemes with housing, leisure or community facilities as well as retailing. Over the next 12 months we hope to deliver over 1,000 new residential units in South East England – including 500 flats in Dartford and 200 in Streatham.

Post offices

In 2003 Tesco purchased the T&S chain of around 900 small convenience stores. Around half of these are being upgraded to the Tesco Express format, which offers an improved convenience store service with wider choice, including more fresh fruit and vegetables.

Roughly one in three of the T&S stores contain post office counters and the majority are retained if the store is converted. In some cases, however, this is not possible for reasons of space: our Express stores need a little more room to provide the wider range of products that our customers like to have. In these cases we work to relocate the post office counter locally by advertising for suitable candidates and providing financial and practical support for those who want to transfer the post office to their business.

We have successfully relocated post office counters to a variety of locations including other retailers and community centres. For example, in Bury St Edmunds we worked with the local MP and Council to relocate the post office to a nearby community centre.