Tesco is UK's leading retailer

In an exclusive investigation, James Hall, retail correspondent for the Sunday Telegraph reveals that Tesco has submitted more than twice as many local authority planning applications as its nearest rival. The extent of Tesco's determination to strengthen its position as the UK's largest retailer and supermarket has been laid bare in an audit of planning documents conducted for The Sunday Telegraph. Tesco, which last week reported a 17 per cent rise in full-year pre-tax profits to £2.2bn, has applied to local authorities across the UK to build 90 new store developments and extend 56 of its existing stores, adding millions of square feet to its portfolio and increasing the acres of land occupied by Tesco by a fifth.

Tesco's total of 146 planning applications is well over double the number of applications submitted to local authorities by its rivals. J Sainsbury, the UK's number two supermarket, has applied to build or extend 61 stores; Asda, the chain owned by Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer, has submitted plans for 51 stores, while Wm Morrison, the fourth largest chain, has applied to build or extend 27 stores.

The OFT claims that supermarkets own a combined total of 319 sites in land banks and options over a further 149 sites. About 70 per cent of these are thought to be owned by Tesco. However, Sir Terry Leahy, Tesco's chief executive, denies this. He told Radio Four last week: "We don't have a land bank. There is no such thing as a land bank. Tesco is a growing business. I think that anybody can appreciate that you need to buy land ahead of developing a store. All the land that we have is in some stage of development for a Tesco store, here and around the world."

Analysts point out that Tesco is too financially prudent to buy land and do nothing with it. "It doesn't stack up. The idea that somehow Tesco is buying land, particularly at current prices, for the sole purpose of preventing other retailers from operating is ludicrous," says Simon Proctor, an analyst at Charles Stanley, the stockbroker. "When you are gaining market share organically why would you want to drive down your returns on capital - which you would do by buying land that you don't use and therefore get no return from? It makes no sense," he says.