Saturday 18 July 2009

Positive News on Competition Commission Ruling

Vanessa emails us (thanks) to let us know of the latest developments in Tesco's battle with the Competition Commission. Following Tesco's successful appeal against the Commission's findings that too many Tesco supermarkets in the same town might not be a good thing for shoppers, it looks likely that the Competition Commission will be able to impose its rules. Good news for cities with lots of Tesco stores (although it won't affect St Albans!).

The details are below...

The competition test for grocery retailers would bring lasting benefits for consumers, the Competition Commission (CC) has provisionally concluded in a report today.

The commission has been carrying out further analysis on the benefits and costs of the test as ordered by the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) after Tesco successfully appealed over the proposal in March this year.

The test would block supermarket developments by retailers already powerful in a local area to make room for competing stores from rival retailers.

Peter Freeman, Chairman of the CC and Chairman of the Groceries Inquiry Group, said: "What we were asked to do by the tribunal was to prove the case for the competition test and show that it would have the intended effect — to help bring in competition where it is lacking and to stop individual retailers consolidating their position in local areas to the detriment of consumers.

"Our detailed analysis has shown that the test is likely to have a positive effect over time for consumers by ensuring that they benefit from greater competition and choice between retailers in their local areas," he said.

The commission's report into the UK groceries market, published in April 2008, concluded that action was needed to improve competition in a number of local markets, and so included a recommendation for the inclusion of a competition test in planning decisions on larger grocery stores.

But Tesco appealed to the CAT, which ruled that the commission had not properly assessed the economic costs of the test, and that it had failed sufficiently to address its proportionality and effectiveness.

The tribunal did not dispute the justification for the test itself and remitted the matter back to the commission for further consideration.

The commission's latest analysis estimated the benefits to consumers that would result from increased competition, with retailers already powerful in a local area no longer being able to shut out rivals from those areas and with the test also stopping areas from being dominated by individual retailers in the first place.

The analysis compared these benefits against the costs from any delay between a dominant retailer’s development being blocked and a rival’s alternative taking its place. It concluded that over the longer term, the benefits to consumers would outweigh any such initial costs.

The CC is now inviting responses to the provisional decision by 29 July, and will assess these before publishing its final decision by 5 October.

For further details on the Groceries report, see: http://www.competition-commission.org.uk/press_rel/2008/apr/pdf/14-08.pdf.

Friday 17 July 2009

More Articles on the Squatters

Many thanks to the local press for following up the issues of squatters in Inkerman Road. Mary Brosnan wrote an article in the Herts Advertiser (which does not seem to be available online), while St Albans Review Editor Martin Buhagiar hits the nail on the head with this editorial.

The Herts Advertiser article does contain a comment from Tesco's agency, Verulam Homes, that building work in Inkerman Road was due to start in three months. While we welcome any sign of a commitment from Tesco to bring its houses back into use, we are getting used to vague promises - remember when Tesco promised to let the London Road houses by Christmas?

Local councillor Michael Green has also contacted us to say that he is pursuing the issue with St Albans District Council.

Tuesday 14 July 2009

Squatter Update...

Thanks to Alex Barham for this article in the St Albans Review today. She has interviewed a number of Inkerman Road residents and got to the bottom of the problem with the Tesco-owned houses. We await with interest any response from Tesco...

Of course this is not the first link between Tesco and squatters here. In October last year, Tesco admitted that squatters were living in its London Road houses.

Friday 10 July 2009

Squatters in Inkerman Road Tesco Properties!

Local resident Caroline emails to tell us that squatters have taken over one of the Tesco houses, 25 Inkerman Road. They have posted up the notice pictured left, setting out their rights. The notice is dated 29/6/09.

25 Inkerman Road is one of several local houses that Tesco owns - the house next door is boarded up (see the photo below), as are many houses on London Road - where despite Tesco obtaining planning permission to make them usable for housing, no work appears to have started.

Stop Tesco believes that given the desperate need for housing in the St Albans area, Tesco must put these houses back into use NOW.

Of course, if this is another Tesco strategy to let the potential site for a store decay even further in the hope that local people come around to its opinion, we are pretty sure that the people of St Albans are not that stupid!


Tesco houses in Inkerman Road that are not available for housing (squatted house in the foreground, boarded up house in the background).


PS - another local resident, Deric, has emailed us to say...

'Saturday saw an ambulance called out to attend to a very bloody head injury and the street now has a constant stream of people shouting and drinking in the street. The police were also in attendance over the weekend. If anyone can help / advise on this issue please let me know, I am trying to speak to Tesco which is proving not too easy.' We have passed his comments to local councillors and journalists.

Please let us know (via tescocampaign@yahoo.co.uk or by posting a comment) if you live in Inkerman Road and have news about the squatters or related activity in the area.