The supermarket giant confirmed in its results today that construction will not go-ahead at the sites bought during the last decade.

As a result the value of the land bank has been written-down by £804m.

Tesco said: “Following on from our announcement in April 2012 that we would be reducing the level of new space growth in the UK going forward, we have carried out an in-depth review of our property pipeline.

“We have reviewed all of the schemes included in the pipeline individually, assessing their viability and potential to deliver an appropriate level of return on capital employed if built out.

“As a result, we have identified more than 100 sites – the majority of which were bought between five and ten years ago, at a higher point in the property cycle – which we no longer plan to develop and have therefore written their values down.

“In addition to a number of other provisions, including for the impairment of schemes which still can deliver an attractive return, but one lower than originally anticipated, this has led to a total one-off UK property write-down of £804m.”