Planning for Sainsbury's Redevelopment Paused
No explanation given by project team for delay
Sainsbury's Chiswick car park entrance
September 2, 2026
Work on the proposed redevelopment of the Sainsbury’s supermarket appears to be on hold with the consultation process paused.
The project web site for Chiswick Gardens had earlier stated that the results of the informal public consultation held in February would be published ahead of a fuller consultation in the spring. The intention at that point was to submit a planning application early in the summer after the council elections.
The project web site was later updated to say that the consultation results would be published in ‘mid-Summer’ with no indication of the timing of a second consultation. When it had reached a time that would generally be regarded as late summer, we asked the when the report would be published and we were informed that the scheme was on hold with no explanation given.
The web site has since been updated to state, “The consultation is paused whilst the project team continue to develop the scheme. This webpage will be updated once new information is ready to be shared.”
Sainsbury’s, which is believed to be the freeholder of the site, has partnered with developer St James (part of Berkeley Group) as part of its "biggest investment in stores in a decade". The company has been seriously looking at the development potential of its main Chiswick store for at least 14 years.
Although only sketchy details were released of the proposals at drop-in sessions held in February, the indications were that the mixed-used development would include residential towers up to 15-storeys high. The project would see the supermarket rebuilt, a temporary store installed on site, and hundreds of new flats constructed above and around the new retail space. Sainsbury’s said it continue to trade all through the construction phase but for 12-18 months it would have operated from a temporary store, half the size of the existing, on the western end of the car park.
It is possible that the delay might be due to a failure to agree the affordable housing component of the project with Hounslow Council. They had previously challenged aspects of the borough’s Local Plan, arguing that affordable housing requirements and viability assumptions need to be applied more flexibly.
There have also been suggestions from local sources that complications exist concerning building on the car park site which was part of the Whitbread’s bottling plant up until it was taken over by Sainsbury’s in the mid-eighties. It is understood that in March 1986 the council and Sainsbury’s signed an agreement that the land could only be used for car-parking purposes and that free parking should be available for a certain period with charges beyond that no higher than those in council car parks. The new proposals envisaged a reduction of the number of parking bays by about a third which would be placed underneath the store building. Sainsbury’s has previously stated that it believed that the restrictive covenant was not a bar to development of the site.
We asked the project team and Sainsbury’s about the issue and received no response.
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