But the retail giant will be scaling-back its new construction programme with a 38% drop in new schemes in 2012/13 on the previous year.

Total capital spending is set to fall by £500m to £3.3bn.

Tesco said: “We are making some significant changes to our existing stores and we are altering our approach to new development.

“We have stepped up the pace of refreshing the existing estate, improving the look and feel of stores for customers – featuring warmer colours, better lighting, improved sightlines across the store and clearer, less functional signage.

“We will refresh or refit some 430 stores in 2012/13 representing more than 25% of our total UK space.

“New space added in 2012/13 will be 38% lower than in 2011/12 and capital expenditure in the UK will also reduce, despite our additional investment in existing space and online”