Tesco’s has agreed a deal to sell fourteen unwanted development sites across London, the South East and Bath as part of moves to offload assets to strengthen its balance sheet.

The Spenhill development sites have been sold to Meyer Bergman, a privately held real estate investment management firm, in a transaction worth £250m. The land, once earmarked for new Tesco stores, is said to be suitable for mixed-use and residential development.

Tesco’s Chief Executive, Dave Lewis, said: “Since announcing our decision to build fewer stores we have been working with Meyer Bergman to bring forward investment on our Spenhill sites. We are very pleased to have agreed a deal with Meyer Bergman that will bring forward significant investment for these local communities, including opportunities for residential development.

“We will be working with Meyer Bergman and local Councils in the coming weeks to complete a formal handover and look forward to the delivery of investment on these sites.”

Tesco has been closing loss-making stores and offloading assets as part of Lewis’ turnaround plans and moves to reduce debt. In January, it walked away from 49 large supermarkets, some of which had already been built and closed 43 unprofitable stores. Tesco also recently offloaded its South Korean business for £4.2bn. However, after announcing a 55% drop in half year profit earlier this month, Lewis stressed further major asset sales were unlikely in the near future, ruling out the sale of its businesses in Asia and C&E Europe.