The chief of Aldi UK has slammed the country’s planning system as too slow, saying the delays it causes are bad for investment and job creation.
Aldi UK & Ireland CEO Giles Hurley said the process of securing planning permission for a new store had lengthened over time from 12 weeks to up to three years.
He said it was slowing down Aldi in its ambition to grow its UK estate from about 1,050 stores to 1,500.
“We would prefer the planning system to be more efficient, simplified and deliver on the 12-week planning cycle that it used to,” Hurley told The Grocer. “The reality is planning permission can often take two or three years now.
“It won’t ever stop us but it slows us down. And the slowdown, we think, is bad for the country because it slows down investments, it slows down job creation, whether that’s in the construction or the jobs we bring with our stores.
“It also reduces value and choice for customers. So if it can be streamlined, we would welcome it.”
Aldi last year held talks with No 10 over planning reform, and said it would invest in the process to speed up new store openings.
The discounter is on course to open 40 new UK stores in 2025, and is planning another 80 throughout 2026 and 2027, according to Hurley. It is investing £650m in UK expansion this year alone.
Hurley said planning objections from competitors also delayed new stores. “We have an ambition of 1,500 stores, and we’ll get there as quickly as we get there,” he said.
“Clearly, I have an ambition to go as fast as we can, because we know three in every 10 households don’t have access to an Aldi store, and I’m very keen to change that.
“There are a range of obstacles and that starts with finding a site. You’ve then got to make sure the site is zoned appropriately. You have to go through planning permission, which is a bureaucratic exercise. There are a number of stakeholders involved in that, obviously, going through committee. And, yes, sometimes there can be objections.”
The Grocer revealed last week that Aldi had overtaken Asda to be the UK’s third biggest supermarket in grocery market share over four weeks. Aldi’s grocery market share was 9.8% in the four weeks to 18 May, compared with Asda’s 9.4%, according to Kantar data seen by The Grocer.
The grocery figures include food and drink, household and health & beauty sales. They are different to those in Kantar’s monthly published market update, which relate to all expenditure through store tills excluding petrol and in-store concessions, and have Asda still ahead, on 12.1% versus Aldi’s 11.1% in the 12 weeks to 18 May.
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