diff --git a/MANIFEST.in b/MANIFEST.in
index 21963a510..05a3d01d5 100644
--- a/MANIFEST.in
+++ b/MANIFEST.in
@@ -1,11 +1,12 @@
 include Makefile
 include pytest.ini
 include requirements.txt
 include requirements-swh.txt
 include requirements-test.txt
 include tox.ini
 include version.txt
+recursive-include swh/web/assets *
 recursive-include swh/web/static *
 recursive-include swh/web/templates *
 include swh/web/tests/browse/views/data/swh-logo.png
 include swh/web/tests/browse/views/data/iso-8859-1_encoded_content
diff --git a/Makefile.local b/Makefile.local
index 75eadbab7..a3e834c1e 100644
--- a/Makefile.local
+++ b/Makefile.local
@@ -1,38 +1,37 @@
 TEST_DIRS := ./swh/web/tests
 
 .PHONY: build-webpack-dev
 build-webpack-dev:
 	npm run build-dev
 
 .PHONY: build-webpack-dev-no-verbose
 build-webpack-dev-no-verbose:
 	npm run build-dev >/dev/null
 
 .PHONY: build-webpack-prod
 build-webpack-prod:
 	npm run build
 
 .PHONY: run-migrations
 run-migrations:
 	python3 swh/web/manage.py migrate 2>/dev/null
 
 run-django-webpack-devserver: run-migrations
 	bash -c "trap 'trap - SIGINT SIGTERM ERR; kill %1' SIGINT SIGTERM ERR; npm run start-dev & cd swh/web && python3 manage.py runserver --nostatic"
 
 run-django-webpack-dev: build-webpack-dev run-migrations
 	python3 swh/web/manage.py runserver --nostatic
 
 run-django-webpack-prod: build-webpack-prod run-migrations
 	python3 swh/web/manage.py runserver --nostatic --settings=swh.web.settings.production
 
 run-django-server-dev: run-migrations
 	python3 swh/web/manage.py runserver --nostatic
 
 run-django-server-prod: run-migrations
 	python3 swh/web/manage.py runserver --nostatic --settings=swh.web.settings.production
 
 run-gunicorn-server: run-migrations
 	gunicorn3 -b 127.0.0.1:5004 swh.web.wsgi
 
-test: build-webpack-dev-no-verbose
 
diff --git a/swh/web/tests/conftest.py b/swh/web/tests/conftest.py
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..e2c981433
--- /dev/null
+++ b/swh/web/tests/conftest.py
@@ -0,0 +1,40 @@
+# Copyright (C) 2018  The Software Heritage developers
+# See the AUTHORS file at the top-level directory of this distribution
+# License: GNU Affero General Public License version 3, or any later version
+# See top-level LICENSE file for more information
+
+import json
+import os
+
+
+def pytest_configure(config):
+    # Small hack in order to be able to run the unit tests
+    # without static assets generated by webpack.
+    # Those assets are not really needed for the Python tests
+    # but the django templates will fail to load due to missing
+    # generated file webpack-stats.json describing the js and css
+    # files to include.
+    # So generate a dummy webpack-stats.json file to overcome
+    # that issue.
+    test_dir = os.path.dirname(__file__)
+    static_dir = os.path.join(test_dir, '../static')
+    webpack_stats = os.path.join(static_dir, 'webpack-stats.json')
+    if os.path.exists(webpack_stats):
+        return
+    bundles_dir = os.path.join(test_dir, '../assets/src/bundles')
+    _, dirs, _ = next(os.walk(bundles_dir))
+    mock_webpack_stats = {
+        'status': 'done',
+        'publicPath': '/static',
+        'chunks': {}
+    }
+    for bundle in dirs:
+        asset = 'js/%s.js' % bundle
+        mock_webpack_stats['chunks'][bundle] = [{
+            'name': asset,
+            'publicPath': '/static/%s' % asset,
+            'path': os.path.join(static_dir, asset)
+        }]
+
+    with open(webpack_stats, 'w') as outfile:
+        json.dump(mock_webpack_stats, outfile)