John Lewis Partnership is seeking discounts from its landlords, with 20 per cent of this quarter's service charge being withheld in some cases.

The BBC reported landlords stating the cost-cutting move has been made without any prior consultation, and could result in legal action by property owners to recover any unpaid money.

The BBC has learned that the retail giant has been telling landlords in some locations that it will withhold.

The retail group announced a restructuring of its management teams earlier this week in a bid to save around £100 million a year, with Waitrose supermarkets and John Lewis department store divisions to be run as one business.

It is understood that the demands have mainly been to shoulder some of the service charge during the so-called golden quarter’ that includes Christmas shopping, Boxing Day sales and several online promotions.

In a statement, John Lewis said: "At a time when we are doing everything we can to reduce our cost base, we have unfortunately been faced with regular increases to the service charges we pay for some of our shops in shopping centres.

"Over the last three years we have seen an increase in service charges of 20 per cent and these continued increases are simply not acceptable, particularly in the absence of strenuous efforts by landlords to work collaboratively with us to reduce these costs,” it read.

"We are investing more in our current shop estate than ever before to do everything we can to encourage customers to grow footfall to our shops and we hope that our landlords will support us in continuing to do this.”

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