Search Results for: commercial

July 16, 2018

New government estates strategy will see thousands of jobs relocate away from London

by Mark Eltringham • News, Property, Public Sector

The UK Government has announced it latest plans to save around £3.6bn over the next two decades by dramatically scaling back its property estate and relocating thousands of staff as part of its new 12 year estates strategy. The Cabinet Office has outlined the plans to move thousands of public sector jobs, including senior roles, out of London by 2030, reducing Whitehall buildings from around 65 to 20 over the same period. Around 20 so-called Government hubs will be set up in the regions by the end of this parliament in 2022. In total, the strategy commits to reducing the number of government-owned office buildings from 800 to under 200, with an estimated saving of £3.6bn over 20 years.

July 15, 2018

First planning application submitted at Haywards Heath business hub

by Neil Franklin • Company news, Property

The Commercial Park Group, a partnership between developer John Baker and leading building and civil engineering contractor Sir Robert McAlpine Ltd, has submitted a planning application to redevelop 21-23 Perrymount Road in Haywards Heath to provide 65,000 sq ft of new offices. This scheme is the first phase of a wider project to create a new 400,000 sq ft business hub called Haywards Park formed of multiple office redevelopments on Perrymount Road.
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July 11, 2018

Katrina Kostic Samen confirmed as President of the British Council for Offices

by Neil Franklin • News, Property, Workplace design

The British Council for Offices (BCO) today welcomes Katrina Kostic Samen as its new President. Katrina Kostic Samen, Founder and Managing Partner at KKS Strategy, formally takes over the position from Ken Shuttleworth, Founding Partner of Make Architects, at the BCO’s Annual General Meeting in London today, Wednesday 11th July. As Chair of the BCO Annual Conference held earlier this year in Berlin, Katrina set out the vision for her Presidential year, challenging delegates to look at the workplace from multiple occupier perspectives, and to ensure that they are designing and delivering offices which are inclusive and provide for a diverse workforce.

July 11, 2018

Challenging some of the most commonly held misconceptions about coworking

by John Williams • Comment, Coworking

There are a number of misconceptions that dominate much of the writing around flexible workspace, despite all the press coverage and discussion around coworking over the last two years. Yet even in this comparatively short space of time, a number of misconceptions about the market have managed to take hold. Some of them are intuitive but wrong to some or other degree. Some are distorted by coverage. Some arise for other reasons. And we know this thanks to the extensive data gathered in Instant’s latest market report. So here in this piece, I am going to try to shatter some of the myths around flex workspace and coworking in particular.

July 5, 2018

Responsible office fit-out toolkit published by Building Better Partnerships

by Neil Franklin • News, Property, Workplace design

Commercial property trade body Building Better Partnerships (BBP) has today published its latest free industry guidance – Responsible Fit-Out Toolkit: Offices. The Toolkit claims to provide guidance for owners and occupiers on how to integrate sustainability and wellbeing into an office fit-out. The authors claim that while workplace design plays a pivotal role in demonstrating a business’s values and can have an immense impact on the comfort and productivity of those working within and visiting a space, opportunities are rarely fully appreciated.

July 5, 2018

IFMA and RICS collaboration announces new board members

by Neil Franklin • Facilities management, News

The International Facility Management Association UK Chapter has confirmed four new appointments to its Board of Directors, further strengthening its ties with the RICS FM Professional Group as part of the collaboration between what is claimed to be the world’s two largest organisations representing the profession. Joining the IFMA UK Board are four members of the RICS FM Professional Group Board including Rory Murphy FRICS, Commercial Director at VINCI Facilities and RICS World Regional Board Member for UK & Ireland. Murphy is joined by Dennis Markey FRICS, Chief Executive Officer at Gen2 Property, Paul Bagust, Global Property Standards Director for RICS and Stephen Shallcroft FRICS, Director Corporate Real Estate at ARCADIS.

July 2, 2018

Investment in European corporate real estate takes a downward turn

by Mark Eltringham • News, Property

Investment levels across European corporate real estate markets are currently on course to meet 2017 levels, after finishing last year on a high. Levels of investment in the first three months of 2018 was broadly in line with the long term average following one of the strongest final quarters recorded in the report from real estate consultancy Savills. Commercial investment totalled €46 billion across the survey area, down 8 percent compared to the same period last year but broadly in line with historic trends.

June 29, 2018

Edinburgh is best UK location for growing technology businesses but office space is becoming scarce

by Neil Franklin • News, Property, Technology

Scotland’s capital city is the best place for tech companies looking to scale up, access funding, and do business in, according to a new Government backed report examining the UK’s tech landscape. Edinburgh tech companies responded with the highest approval rating in the UK when asked to assess how good their city was for ‘doing business’ – a combination of sub factors including access to finance and talent – as part of The Tech Nation 2018 Report – an annual series that captures the strength, depth and breadth of digital tech activity in the UK which employs over one million people. Although 62 percent of Edinburgh’s tech community are satisfied with local access to affordable office space, commercial property firm JLL, who sponsor the report, said one of the main challenges which now faces a burgeoning tech industry in Edinburgh is the room to accommodate continued growth of the sector.

June 20, 2018

Asian investment in City of London offices now hitting record levels

by Mark Eltringham • News, Property

Asian money is pouring into office investments in the Square Mile at a pace rarely seen before, according to a new analysis by Savills. About £3.4 billion of Asian capital has been invested in London offices already this year, according to a study from the property consultancy. That is 70 per cent of the total volume and a record high for the first six months of a year. In the past three months alone, Asian buyers have snapped up £3.5 billion of buildings in London’s financial district. This is the highest figure for a second quarter since 2007, when the commercial property market was at its peak just before the credit crunch hit, according to Savills.

June 12, 2018

Firms ignoring employee anxieties about workplace communications

by Neil Franklin • News, Wellbeing

UK companies are failing to support employees suffering with work-related performance anxiety, the business world’s equivalent to stage fright, despite it being a regular occurrence for many workers, according to new research. RADA Business, the commercial subsidiary of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art which provides communication skills training for corporate individuals, has published the report Beating Workplace Performance Anxiety, which surveyed 1000 workplaces. The report found that, on average, workers report feeling anxious at least once a week (five times per month). Despite this, few workplaces act effectively to counter incidents of workplace communications anxiety. Only 13 percent of people surveyed said that anxieties round communicating in the workplace are picked up and resolved by the management team.

June 11, 2018

Coworking is breaking away from its cultural and geographical stereotypes

by Gary Chandler • Comment, Property, Technology, Workplace design

There is a persistent image of a coworking space as a sort of glorified serviced office for tech and creative startups who can’t afford the eye-watering rents in the areas they need to be. This is usually in the technology hothouses of the world’s major cities where they can work alongside the corporate giants and fellow innovators that thrive there. The reason such perceptions exist is because they are largely true. It’s no coincidence that coworking spaces have thrived up till now in the world’s most expensive property markets – in London, Hong Kong and New York, serving exactly the sorts of start-ups and freelancers who rely on proximity to their potential clients.

June 4, 2018

Your happiness at work is not just down to your employer

by Cary Cooper and Ivan Robertson • Comment, Wellbeing, Workplace design

When Google promoted a software engineer named Chade-Meng Tan to the role of “Jolly Good Fellow”, his career – and the entire culture of Silicon Valley – took a sharp turn. Meng, a cheerful employee valued for his motivational qualities, went from developing mobile search tools to spreading happiness across the organisation. Happiness became his job. Google wasn’t the first to hire someone with the sole remit of enforcing employee contentment. In 1999, when Google was still a start-up, French fashion brand Kiabi hired Christine Jutard as its chief happiness officer. She was one of the first to perform the role. But once Google did it, happiness at work became a key metric and other organisations quickly adopted their approach. Three years after Meng’s appointment, fast food giant McDonald’s even promoted Ronald McDonald from brand mascot to CHO.