John Lewis has dropped plans to build a dozen affordable homes in a village in Hampshire after encountering opposition from residents, dealing an early blow to its ambitions as a property developer.
The mutual, which already owns houses and land in Longstock, near Andover, was forced to scrap the development last month. It cited “a significant level of opposition to the scheme” in a letter to the parish council.
Opposition was driven by concerns about the potential for increased traffic and the size of the project. John Lewis had proposed 12 new homes off the main road in a street called Church Lane.
The decision is a disappointment to young locals seeking a foothold on the housing ladder. One complained of being “pushed out of the village we grew up in” because they cannot afford to buy a property.
The average property in Longstock, where John Lewis has a farm shop and a café, was £1m in 2020, an 8pc increase in the past five years, according to data from Zoopla. Longstock is the second most expensive parish in the local authority area.
Caroline Nokes, the Conservative MP for Romsey and Southampton North, pledged her support for the scheme in May, saying that one of the biggest challenges for young people and older residents in the village was access to affordable housing.
John Speedan Lewis, the founder of the partnership, bought an estate in Leckford in 1929 and acquired more land around it over the years.
Opposition to further development in the village is a minor setback for Dame Sharon White, John Lewis’s chairman, who has staked its future on building social housing and selling home insurance as it seeks to become less reliant on retail.
She vowed last year to make two-fifths of its profits in the next decade outside of shops to protect itself against a brutal retail environment and an accelerated shift to online orders amid the pandemic. The partnership aims to develop 10,000 homes for rent over the next decade.
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