Search Results for: commercial

London’s tech startups and SMEs shift focus from normal hotspots to migrate South of the river

London’s tech startups and SMEs shift focus from normal hotspots to migrate South of the river

Hubble, an office and coworking marketplace, has published new data which it claims shows that tech startups and other growing SMEs in London are leaving the capital’s best known tech hotspots, including Shoreditch and Soho, for south of the river.  Hubble’s search data suggests that London Bridge (29 percent of all searches) is the most popular location in London for companies searching for flexible office space in 2018 (a sharp rise from 3.7 percent of searches in 2017), beating Shoreditch with 27 percent of all searches. More than 37 percent of searches were for office space in south London, counting London Bridge and the Southbank (8.5 percent). Startups and SMEs are branching out to different creative “hub-spots” within London, but most prominently is an unprecedented shift to south of the river. Searches for London Bridge specifically make up 29 percent of all searches and the Southbank, as a whole, making up 37.5 percent of all search queries.

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Manchester offices dominate BCO Awards for North of England

Manchester offices dominate BCO Awards for North of England

Manchester based businesses dominated the annual British Council for Offices (BCO) regional property sector awards dinner held in Manchester at the end of last week.  Shoosmiths LLP, Hilson Moran, Neo and The Bright Building all being recognised as some of the best workplaces in the North of England.  Other workplaces across the North of England that also received recognition were Number One Kirkstall Forge, Leeds (Winner, Best Commercial Workplace, Waterfront Point, Widnes (Winner, Best Corporate Workspace and Albert Works, Sheffield (Winner, Best Projects up to 1,500 m2)

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The workplace week in seven stories you should read

The workplace week in seven stories you should read

The need to work less is a matter of life and death

House-hunters resort to commercial property in Madrid

The return of the traditional workplace for tech firms?

Ten million British jobs could be gone in 15 years and no one knows what happens next.

Embracing technology to move facilities management forward

Tiny robots will deliver your lunch, because we hate human interaction

The lapsing of Finland’s universal basic income trial (registration)

No surprises in new report on future workplace trends

No surprises in new report on future workplace trends

The latest Global Workplace Trends report from Sodexo focuses on the ‘workplace experience’ and how it affects levels of engagement, wellbeing and corporate performance. It’s an undemanding study that sets out seven trends covering familiar themes in a familiar way, even though the authors claim it offers ‘fresh insights’. As well as the idea of ‘experience’, it touches on ideas about the intersections of digital and physical space and the implications for people and organisations as well as the workplace professions. It uses the standard vocabulary, various buzzwords and the usual presuppositions to look at the impact of Millennials, AI, the sharing economy and so on. The visuals are the usual parade of smiling, diverse – but no unattractive, disabled and old – hipsters sharing screens and being creative in sun-dappled interiors. Sauce it with some virtue signals and it’s job done.

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Quarter of UK managers would take a pay cut for a job with a clear purpose beyond profit

Quarter of UK managers would take a pay cut for a job with a clear purpose beyond profit

Quarter of UK managers would take a pay cut for job with purpose beyond profitMore than a quarter of managers (27 percent) in British companies would likely accept a salary cut to work for a company that has a clear purpose beyond profit a new report claims.  A third (32 percent) would actually consider leaving their job if a greater purpose was unclear, while more than half (53 percent) would if their company’s values and purpose didn’t align with their own. The YouGov survey, commissioned by Danone UK, highlights the importance of having a defined company purpose that marries commercial success with social progress.  The findings support a new report by not-for-profit think tank Tomorrow’s Company and Danone UK, that explores the importance of having a purpose beyond profit in helping companies to prosper in the face of workplace challenges created by an uncertain world. The Courage of their Convictions is built from interviews with senior leaders from within some of the UK’s biggest purpose-driven brands, including Danone, John Lewis, Mars, Philips, Tata Consultancy Services and Unilever.

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Canada leads the way in worldwide surge in adoption of green buildings

Canada leads the way in worldwide surge in adoption of green buildings

Major metropolitan office markets across the globe are seeing a significant increase in the adoption of green building certification programmes, according to the inaugural International Green Building Adoption Index (IGBAI) – a study by CBRE and Maastricht University. The study reports that 18.6 percent of space in 10 markets across Australia, Canada and Europe is now certified green versus just 6.4 percent in 2007. Canadian cities set the pace, with 51.6 percent of the space in Vancouver (pictured) and 51.0 percent in Toronto holding green certifications. This is particularly notable for Vancouver, as the city has a formal initiative and action plan – “Greenest City 2020” – toward becoming the greenest city in the world by 2020. In Vancouver and Toronto, green buildings trends will continue to drive both new development and redevelopment of office product. In Vancouver, more than half of the 1.5 million-square feet of product under development is being built to high green certification standards, while much of Toronto’s existing class A product is undergoing intensive capital improvement projects that include upgrades aimed at earning green certifications as well.

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Best workplaces in London honoured at the British Council for Offices annual Regional Awards

Best workplaces in London honoured at the British Council for Offices annual Regional Awards

Five businesses celebrated success last night, with Bloomberg, White Collar Factory, Havas UK, Here East and 10 Lower James Street all recognised as some of the best workplaces in London at the British Council for Offices’ (BCO) regional awards. The BCO’s awards programme claims to recognise the highest quality workplaces and sets the standard for excellence across the regional and national office sectors.

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Small changes could save UK businesses millions on wasted energy

Small changes could save UK businesses millions on wasted energy

commercial property innovationThe UK’s 5.7 million businesses are spending £29.1 billion on energy every year, and could be making significant reductions in its cost according to a study by printerland.co.uk. With Earth Day this Sunday, (April 22) the research claims that tiny tweaks to workplace routines could make a positive impact on the environment, whilst slashing companies’ electricity bills.

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Majority of staff say employers must do more to support their physical and mental wellbeing

Majority of staff say employers must do more to support their physical and mental wellbeing

Majority of staff say employers should do more to support physical and mental wellbeingMore than half of working adults believe that UK businesses are not doing enough to support the physical and mental wellbeing of their employees. The vast majority (86 percent) believe that firms are specifically not doing enough to help employees deal with work-related stress, anxiety and other mental health issues. And with seven out of 10 of those surveyed by Westfield Health saying that the NHS does not have the budget to provide wellbeing services, such as health check-ups and cognitive behavioural therapy, almost three quarters agreed it would be a good idea for a portion of their National Insurance contributions to be redirected towards employee wellbeing programmes. More →

The UK’s incredible shrinking office phenomenon

The UK’s incredible shrinking office phenomenon

Apparently prompted by the recent boom of so-called ‘micro-homes’ in Britain, commercial property firms Savoystewart.co.uk has set out to investigate whether the ‘micro-trend’ has also taken root in the office sector as well. The firm analysed office floorspace available relative to the number of active businesses in England and Wales from 2012 to 2016, finding that the office floorspace is shrinking both on regional and local levels.  Results of the research, which is based on the latest GOV data on business floorspace from the Valuation Office Agency and official stats on business demography from ONS, revealed that the change in office floorspace available per business has been downward in all regions. The results reflect trends in the BCO’s specification guide

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Government announces details of new real estate agency

Government announces details of new real estate agency

The UK government has announced the creation of the Government Property Agency (GPA) which will aim to ‘improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the Government Estate and generate benefits of between £1.4 billion and £2.4 billion over the next ten years’. GPA’s initial portfolio of 80 properties will grow to over 1,000 as it takes on increasing responsibility for managing the general purpose central government real estate portfolio. This is intended to manage the government’s property portfolio strategically in order to realise the benefits that departments cannot achieve on their own. The GPA will partner with government departments to find innovative property solutions, and provide expertise to enable them to deliver wider business change more efficiently. More broadly, the GPA will also be an enabler for the delivery of Civil Service transformation, regional growth and the government’s vision to strengthen the Union.

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Local authorities and developers must work together to boost the quality of new developments, says Green Building Council

Local authorities and developers must work together to boost the quality of new developments, says Green Building Council

The UK Green Building Council (UKGBC) has launched two new resources for developers and local authorities designed to help boost construction standards and improve ‘social value outcomes’.  The first resource is related to residential developments while the second is directly relevant to commercial property. The resource, Social Value in New Development, provides guidance for developers and local authorities to help deliver social value outcomes in new residential and commercial developments. The guidance looks at social value, its stakeholders, strategies for driving positive outcomes and measuring success, and the current barriers to delivery.

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