Tesco includes its own staff in plans to build affordable housing for key-workers alongside new stores

Tesco is planning to make homes available for its staff to combat the lack of affordable housing in London.

The supermarket giant is building about 250 flats alongside its Streatham store in south London.

The flats will be sold to a housing association, which will manage them, reports the Telegraph. About 100 of the will be let, at affordable rents, to key workers.

Of those, 13 have been earmarked for Tesco staff. They would be treated exactly like other tenants and if they leave Tesco they would be allowed to remain in the flats.

But when the flats become vacant, the landlord will give qualifying staff at Tesco first refusal. If Tesco workers did not take up the flats, they would be passed back to the landlord for letting to other key workers.

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A spokeswoman for Tesco told BBC News Online it hoped the scheme would be “beneficial for staff retention” in London, where it suffers from a high turnover of workers.

She added: “It is being led in London because there is more need for affordable housing. The sites in London are more constrained so you need to be a lot more imaginative.”