About Mark Eltringham

Mark is the publisher of Workplace Insight, IN magazine, Works magazine and is the European Director of Work&Place journal. He has worked in the office design and management sector for over thirty years as a journalist, marketing professional, editor and consultant.

Posts by Mark Eltringham:

October 16, 2013

Workplace Week announces details of visits to London Government buildings

by Mark Eltringham • Events, Facilities management, Flexible working, Public Sector

DfE London HQ

For the first time, Workplace Week includes visits to two Government offices, the Department for Education at Sanctuary Buildings in Great Smith Street (pictured) and the Department for International Development on Whitehall. The DfE is just a stone’s throw from the Houses of Parliament and boasts outstanding views of several major landmarks. The building is home to some 2,000 staff who work in a flexible environment with 7 desks for 10 people. The Department for International Development moved to its new London HQ, the oldest purpose-built office in London, at the beginning of the year. The DfID has created a modern, flexible environment which encourages collaborative working, whilst being sympathetic to the historic nature of the building.

October 16, 2013

Leeds Council begins major office refurbishment and signs long term HQ lease

by Mark Eltringham • Facilities management, News, Property, Public Sector

Merrion House, Leeds

Leeds City Council has signed a new 25 year lease on its headquarters building Merrion House as part of a programme aimed at consolidating its property portfolio and housing the majority of its staff under one roof. The council claims the long term deal will save it £15 million over the course of the lease following work on a complete office refurbishment and a consolidation of its estate in the city centre. The refurb includes the addition of a new 50,000 sq ft six-storey extension bringing the total space to around 170,000 sq ft. The revamped HQ will be home to around 1,900 staff including 700 who will move from 13 other buildings around the city. The new agreements is thought to be the largest office pre-let in Leeds for more than 20 years.

October 15, 2013

Demand in UK regional office markets beginning to outstrip supply

by Mark Eltringham • News, Property

The latest report from property consultancy Savill’s looking at trends in the UK’s commercial property market paints a now very familiar picture of an increasingly healthy market driven by a number of sectors in general and the tech and media industries in particular, but also of growing confidence outside of London. It also highlights a marked shift away from public sector to private sector employment. Although the upsurge in demand is putting pressure on the supply of appropriate office space in certain parts of the country, a new report published today by KPMG also highlights the growing order books of UK construction firms and an increase in confidence amongst builders.

October 14, 2013

AHMM chosen for new Met Police headquarters project

by Mark Eltringham • Architecture, Company news, Facilities management, Workplace design

Courtesy of Simon Heath

The firm of architects chosen for Google’s enormous new North London headquarters project as well as the redevelopment of the BBC’s Television Centre has been chosen to design the new home of the Metropolitan Police in Whitehall. The decision to award the job to Allford Hall Monaghan Morris (AHMM) was announced by the Mayor of London, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner and the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA). The Mayor’s Office for Policing And Crime (MOPAC) is selling New Scotland Yard, and moving to modern offices at the iconic Curtis Green building on the Victoria Embankment in 2015. This new building will then revert to being called Scotland Yard.

October 9, 2013

New CIOB survey lifts lid on extent of corruption in UK construction

by Mark Eltringham • Architecture, Facilities management, Property

A new survey from the Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB) claims that the majority of professionals in the UK construction industry believe that corruption in the sector is commonplace. The survey, which can be downloaded in full here, found that over a third (35 percent) had personally been offered a bribe or some other form of inducement at some point in their career, while nearly two-thirds (65 percent) believed the offer of gifts and corporate hospitality to win contracts is commonplace. A similar proportion (38 percent) of respondents had come across anti-competitive practices on at least one occasion, and of those, 29 percent had experienced cartel activity in the year running up to the survey.

October 8, 2013

More than half of twenty-something UK men would like all male offices, claims survey

by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Workplace

At Insight we report surveys from firms on an almost daily basis. We generally do so without too much comment, trusting that readers are smart or jaded enough to apply their own filters based on whichever company is responsible and the number of people surveyed before dusting them all with a liberal pinch of salt and coming to their own conclusions. Even so, here’s one that may need more seasoning than most. According to a new survey from business supplies company Expert Market, slightly more than half of the UK’s male workers under the age of 30 would like to work in an all male environment, mostly based on the idea that this would mean less flirting, fewer arguments and more work.

October 7, 2013

Full details of Workplace Week event are announced

by Mark Eltringham • Events, News

PwC More London Offices

More details have been announced about this year’s Workplace Week, which takes place on 5 November at PricewaterhouseCoopers More London building. Our support for the event means that Insight readers are offered discounted tickets. The event is organised by Advanced Workplace Associates in aid of Children in Need. The event includes a chance to visit some of the UK’s most innovative workplaces including RBS, Innocent Drinks and KPMG as well as convention and a series of Fringe events. Speakers include Johnny Dunford, global director of commercial property at RICS; Curtis McLean, founder of Innovation Places; Keith Saxton, director of financial services at IBM Research; Jessica Pryce-Jones, founder of the I-Opener Institute in Oxford; and Mark Sherfield, COO of global accountants BDO.

October 7, 2013

Third of Europe’s large firms have already lost data through BYOD

by Mark Eltringham • Facilities management, Flexible working, News, Technology

Bring Your Own Device remains the Gordian Knot of workplace technology. While firms have tried to label and co-opt the unstoppable propensity of employees to use their own devices for work as a way of cutting the business’s technology costs, they are paying in other ways. As we reported last week many remain unaware of the extent of the practice and of its potential to clash with company policy. Now, the full extent of the inevitable security breach inherent in either sanctioned or unsanctioned use of personal technology is becoming evident. According to a new report from Samsung, around a third of Europe’s largest companies have lost company and confidential data through the practice.

October 4, 2013

Record breaking quarter for Central London commercial property markets

by Mark Eltringham • News, Property

According to a new report from property consultancy Colliers International, the West End of London has enjoyed a record £2.8bn of investment in the third quarter of 2013. Office occupancy increased by over 1m sq ft. in a market driven by activity in the tech and media sectors which accounted for 40 percent of the market. Also prominent are several major deals including the purchase of Paddington Central by British Land. Occupation of grade A office space reached more than 1.1m sq ft across central London. The figures mark the highest level of activity since the start of the downturn and 2013 activity is now only 1 percent lower than that for the whole of 2012.

October 4, 2013

CIBSE publishes guide on energy reduction from refurbishment projects

by Mark Eltringham • Environment, Facilities management, Property, Workplace design

The Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers (CIBSE) has published a guide on how to make the most of the energy reduction opportunities that arise during refurbishment projects. The document, called Refurbishment of non-domestic buildings, is available in print (£60) and online (£55). CIBSE president George Adams claims: “Making the current building stock consume significantly less energy contributes to our cities in the future to reduce their heat islands, lower carbon foot prints and lessen the demand on already stretched energy infrastructures. Cities are key to the world’s energy problems and therefore the buildings within should strive through continuous improvement to be as energy efficient as possible and this new guide will assist in this huge challenge.”

October 3, 2013

Firms increasingly likely to eschew BYOD in favour of CYOD, claims new report

by Mark Eltringham • Technology

Companies have an inconsistent approach to the implementation of Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policies in the workplace and often misjudge the ways in which people use their own technology for work regardless of official policies, claims a snapshot survey of IT managers at 224 UK businesses commissioned by Azzurri Communications. It found that while a greater number of firms are switching to Choose Your Own Device (CYOD) as an alternative in which the business keeps control of the account and SIM card for equipment, staff continue to use their own devices anyway to a far greater extent than their employers assume.

October 1, 2013

Norway’s tallest tower named as one of the winners of the Nordic Built Challenge

by Mark Eltringham • Architecture, Environment, Facilities management, News

Schmidt Hammer Lassen Architects has been announced as one of the five winners of the Nordic Built Challenge with plans for Urban Mountain – the tallest tower in Norway. Nordic Built Challenge is a design contest based around the refurbishment of existing buildings. The objective of the competition is to encourage the sustainable refurbishment of some of the most common building types in the Nordic region by showcasing innovation in major projects across the region. The other four winners of the competition were Ellebo Garden Room in Denmark, Cape Green in Iceland, Fittja People’s Palace in Sweden and Equlibrium in Finland. All of the winning entries can be viewed here.