Search Results for: development

Supply of new office space in London continues to fall short of demand

by • Architecture, News, Property

Glass half emptyOne of the downsides to London’s attractiveness as a business destination, as we reported yesterday, is its inability to provide enough office space to satisfy the rapacious demands of the companies who want to work there. Survey after survey reveals the same thing. Even though London has a healthy pipeline of new offices under construction, it cannot keep pace with demand. The latest survey to make the same point comes from Deloitte Real Estate whose London Crane Survey claims that the 9.2 million sq. ft. of office space currently being built will fall short of what is needed. The report claims that London office space is likely to remain in short supply for two years as the new occupancy levels of offices continues to outstrip supply. The report claims that 2014will see 7 million sq. ft. of Grade A office space delivered, the largest volume for over a decade but nearly half has already been let even before construction is complete.

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Design skills cited as one reason why London is the world’s best city

by • Environment, Events, News, Workplace design

Clerkenwell design weekFor the first time, London is the world’s best city for business, culture and finance, according to the latest edition of PWC’s annual Cities of Opportunity report.  And the city’s reputation as a global leader in design is cited as one of the main reasons. The index of thirty of the world’s most important cities claims that London’s sheer economic clout, technological infrastructure and its design and development skills are just a few of the factors that led to the city usurping New York for the first time. When the survey was last carried out, it was ranked third. London is ranked one of the top three best places for intellectual capital and innovation alongside Paris and San Francisco and has leapt from eighth place last year to joint first place (with Seoul) in terms of its technological readiness.

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Trust in ethical behaviour is linked to the size of the business, claims report

by • Architecture, News

Ethical behaviourThe larger the firm the less likely it is to trust its employees to behave ethically according to a new report from the Association of Accounting Technicians. The research also found that UK’s most ethical businesses are small architectural practices. According to the research, conducted by Opinion Matters on behalf of AAT, only 37 per cent of SMEs trust their staff to do the right thing compared to 66 per cent of microbusinesses. The report also found that firms in the architectural sector have more faith in the ethical decision making of their employees and are more concerned about the ethical behaviour of suppliers than in any other industry. Interestingly, the report highlights the fact that, as the number of employees increases, businesses are more likely to dedicate a member of staff dedicated to fostering ethical behaviour and have a formal code of conduct.

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UK one of the top global business destinations for sales growth and profitability

by • Furniture, News, Workplace design

Ad Lib detailGlobal manufacturing executives rank the UK as one of the top destinations for future sales growth and profitability, according to KPMG’s latest Global Manufacturing Outlook report published this week. This places the UK ahead of Germany, India and Japan and alongside China, beaten only by the US. The report also notes that the UK is leading the world in the growth of 3D printing. The survey of 460 executives representing business with an annual turnover in excess of $5 billion reveals that the UK is ranked third in terms of those countries in which global companies expect profit growth over the next two years. The focus on new technology and materials in the report reveals that 85 percent of UK manufacturers are already moving to 3D printing to reduce their product development life cycle, as British office furniture maker Senator did in prototyping its Ad-Lib range (pictured).

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HR and Facilities Management bodies to collaborate on future of workplace

by • Facilities management, News, Workplace

Facilities managementOne of the main themes at the ThinkFM conference yesterday was the acknowledgement that facilities management and HR need to break down the silos that often exist between the two disciplines. This was the message of Chris Kane, CEO of BBC Commercial Properties, who explained that the British Institute of Facilities Management will be collaborating with the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development on a number of projects to investigate how both communities of professionals are evolving and adapting to the changing workplace. It marked the end of a conference which began the day with a talk by Peter Cheese, the CEO of the CIPD, who remarked that both professions were in the business of getting the most of people in the working environment and why it is vital that those tasked with managing these key resources within organisations need to work together to maximise the value of its workforce. (more…)

New NHS purchasing framework announces list of appointed firms

by • Architecture, News, Property, Public Sector

NHS procurementDetails have been announced of the firms appointed to a new NHS purchasing framework designed to provide best value and improved service levels across a range of procured services including architecture, quantity surveying, health and safety, environmental management, project management, mechanical & electrical and building consultancy. The procurement division of NHS Shared Business Services (NHS SBS), claims to have redesigned the existing construction consultancy framework which was originally only open to architects and quantity surveyors, to cover a total of 11 different disciplines and covering 12 different regions. The new framework, which was first announced last month, will apply to all 600 NHS Trusts and their commissioning organisations as they procure consultancy services for new build and refurbishment works for buildings.

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London large commercial property pipeline leads rest of Europe

by • News, Property

London Commercial Property London will be home to 35 new large office buildings before the end of this year making it one of Europe’s most important destinations for major corporates wishing to occupy over 5,000 sq. m. of commercial property, according to a new report from Colliers International. The survey of 23 major European cities found that together they will offer just over 800 readily-available and high quality large scale offices to choose from by the end of 2014. The 2014 EMEA Office Report claims that this year will see London become the city with the joint third highest availability of large offices in Europe, up dramatically from 11th place.  London matches Amsterdam in having 60, trailing Paris with 62 and Moscow with 98. London, however, stands out as having a strong pipeline of new large office developments.

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British Land announces first letting at Marble Arch House in West End

by • Facilities management, News, Property

Marble Arch HouseJust a month after its launch, Marble Arch House in London’s West End, which includes 61,200 sq ft of new office space over seven floors, has been let by British Land. Fulcrum Asset Management has signed a ten year lease at £78.50 per sq ft, and will move into the 9,000 sq ft fifth floor of the building in the summer. British Land entered into an agreement with The Portman Estate to purchase and redevelop Marble Arch House, located on Seymour Street in the Portman Village, in 2011. The scheme, designed by Bennetts Associates Architects, includes 6,400 sq ft of green roof space, designed to encourage wild grasses, as well as birds, bees, butterflies and other wildlife. The office space features natural light from both east and west, with shading louvres that minimise glare and overheating, while maintaining views towards Hyde Park. (more…)

Employers fail to monitor wellbeing and mental health alongside staff engagement

by • Flexible working, News, Workplace

Mental ill health still not being addressedMonitoring of employee engagement and wellbeing by FTSE 100 companies improved over the past year, but organisations are failing to measure or address the psychological health of employees. The latest Business in the Community (BITC) Workwell FTSE 100 benchmark showed an increase in the average company scores from 21 per cent to 25 per cent while reporting across the five identified areas of BITC’s Workwell Model; Better Work, Better Relationships, Better Specialist Support, Better Physical and Psychological Health and Working Well increased from 53 to 63. 86 per cent of companies now report on four or five of these themes. But despite this, there was almost no evidence that psychological health is being measured or addressed, and the provision of mental health support continues to be a low scoring area (11%). (more…)

The business of workplace design and management; new issue of Insight is now available

by • Comment, News, Newsletter, Workplace design

Flexible workingIn the latest Insight newsletter, available to view online; Mark Eltringham lists just seven of the ways in which flexible working may have actually made our lives more rigid; expectations for rising rents as demand for commercial property reaches the highest level since before the financial crisis; ‘Walkie Talkie’ skyscraper signs up two new tenants; and the BCO names London and the South East’s best recently refurbished examples of workplace design. The idea that staff find greater job satisfaction when they work in environmentally friendly surroundings is challenged by a new study; while another report claims that wearable technology could be a boast to productivity; and the CIPD warns that rigid organisational hierarchies hamper the development of management and leadership skills within the workplace. To automatically receive our weekly newsletter, simply add your email address to the box on the home page.

Hierarchical organisations ‘stifle’ employee productivity, claims CIPD

by • Knowledge, News, Workplace

I know my placeRigid organisational hierarchies hamper the development of management, employee productivity and leadership skills within the workplace, warns the CIPD. Their report, ‘Leadership – easier said than done,’ finds a growing trend in developing the capability of individual leaders and managers, an approach known as ‘distributed leadership’. However, faced with outdated organisational structures and cultures – these managers are unable to apply what they’ve learnt in the training room. The report recommends that leadership development should give greater consideration to the organisation-wide factors that can help or hinder the practical application of great leadership skills by employees at all levels. It urges HR managers to take the next step from training individual leaders, to improving the leadership capacity of the organisation as a whole; focusing on understanding what kind of leadership it requires and what changes are needed. (more…)

Wearable technology will improve productivity and job satisfaction, claims report

by • News, Technology, Workplace

Google_Glass_Explorer_EditionIt’s remains a cause of a great deal of rancour in workplaces and public spaces around the world but new research from Goldsmiths, University of London claims that wearable technology can boost employee productivity by over 8 percent and job satisfaction by around 3.5 percent. The study was carried out as part of the University’s Human Cloud at Work (HCAW) programme and was designed to explore the effects of wearable technologies such as Google Glass in the workplace and on employee wellbeing, productivity and job satisfaction. HCAW is a two-year collaborative project between the Institute of Management Studies and cloud specialist Rackspace to investigate how cloud-enabled wearable devices will impact on individuals and businesses.

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