Asda has revealed radical plans to give space in its supermarkets to community projects to make use of square footage it no longer needs with the explosion of online.

The retailer has announced a major collaboration with the RSA to draw up a “new model for retail” and launched trials at stores in London, Tilbury and Oldham.

With shoppers increasingly moving online, Asda said it expected to be left with a big surplus of store space, which it planned to make available to local authorities, businesses, voluntary groups and education services, in a bid to put Asda at the heart of communities.

Groups at the launch at the RSA’s headquarters this week described the plans as a radical shift in retailer CSR policies and the first evidence of a potentially huge transformation of store layouts.

“Asda has been very direct in saying this is a model to make the best of an unexpected opportunity caused by having an excess of square feet in its stores,” said Paul Buddery, who runs the RSA 2020 Public Services Hub, which is co-running the project and will conduct workshops and surveys over the next few months.

“They see this as an opportunity to create a different kind of store model,” he said.

Asda’s policy contrasts with that of Tesco, which has also admitted its big box stores risk becoming white elephants unless they adapt, but has announced plans to fill the space with other retail business, including its recently snapped up Giraffe restaurant chain and Harris + Hoole coffee shops.

“The nature of retail is changing and as a result our local communities’ interactions with retailers are also likely to change,” said Asda corporate affairs director Paul Kelly. “The aim of this project is to examine how we can continue to add social value to the local areas we serve.”

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