Mystery Lingers Over 170 New Flats Approval

Mystery surrounds the approval of plans for 170 flats to replace the John Lewis customer collections centre in Crossland Road, opposite The Oracle. The site has been vacant since 2021 and John Lewis announced plans for apartments in 2023.

The application was first submitted in September 2024 and revised down from 215 to 170 flats in July last year. Reading Borough Council's planning applications committee approved the scheme, subject to conditions, in October.

The project was officially signed off after John Lewis entered a section 106 legal agreement with the council. That agreement, signed on Thursday, August 20, sets out the development rules and developer obligations.

The scheme is for one new apartment building: 79 one-bed, 81 two-bed and 10 three-bed flats. A total of 27 flats are designated as affordable through reduced monthly rent.

The agreement says 17 flats will be affordable at Local Housing Allowance rent level: four three-bed, six two-bed and seven one-bed. A further 10 will be affordable at discounted market rent: one three-bed, four two-bed and five one-bed.

Questions remain over who will actually deliver the scheme after John Lewis announced it was withdrawing from its rental property business in February this year.

The John Lewis Partnership said: "Our rental property ambition was based on a very different financial environment: one with more stable investment returns, lower borrowing costs and more affordable costs to build homes.

"Unfortunately, the current climate - higher interest rates, inflationary pressures and a more cautious property market - has meant the model no longer meets the Partnership's investment criteria."

The announcement added that the partnership has been successful in its 'core retail strategy' and will simplify the business to strengthen its balance sheet.

It is understood the site and the planning permission will be sold to a developer to deliver the project. You can view the approved plans and the legal agreement by searching reference PL/24/1155 on the council's planning portal.

More information about the site's future has been requested from John Lewis.

James Aldridge, Local Democracy Reporter