Sukhdeep Dhillon is BNP Paribas Real Estate's UK Economist. She specialises in forecasting economic and real estate markets in the UK and Europe and also provides insights across all asset types.
To make our workplaces better, we need to use both data and insights effectively in order to understand the change needed. However, sometimes the solution will lie outside of the four walls of our physical offices. Whether developing new space, or trying to improve existing, we need to change our metrics and look at other areas within both the urban and rural environments for data or anecdotes. These metrics will demonstrate how our spaces relate to the people who use them and the environments in which they sit.
Diverse businesses reap ‘diversity dividends’ – the UK economy loses £127bn in output each year due to discriminatory pay practices (£123bn gender, £2.6bn ethnic minorities, £2bn sexual orientation).
Recent roundtable discussions with a range of BNPPRE corporate clients found that, anecdotally, occupiers were looking to reduce their office footprint by 10%-50%. Whilst clearly a large range, it was found that occupiers who had already adopted agile working expected the reduction in floorspace to be smaller than those who hadn’t.
The % of total take up of flexible space fell from 18% to 4% in the first 9 months of 2020 compared to 2019.
The average workstation in Central London costs £17.5k per annum, yet the average desk utilisation rate stands at only 45%. For a typical London office containing 500 workstations, that represents as much as £5m per annum wasted on rent alone.
38% of all energy-related CO2 emissions come from buildings and construction emissions.
51% of institutional investors globally now expect higher long-term returns on real estate where environmental criteria have been taken into account.
The UK social impact investment market is worth more than £5bn annually. Social property funds account for 42% of the total market.
London offices that are WiredScore Certified command 4.7% more in rent than in similar buildings that do not have the connectivity accreditation.
The UK PropTech market is worth a potential £6bn, and already receives 10% of global PropTech investment.
Productivity and cognitive ability can increase by up to 50% in a healthy building environment. Employees have fewer sick days and enjoy a better working environment that provides them with the comfort of clean indoor air and thermal, lighting, and ventilation controls.
More than €1bn (£907m) has been spent on cycling-related infrastructure and 2,300km (1,400 miles) of new bike lanes have been rolled out across Europe since the pandemic began.
Parking spaces currently occupy 16% of London streets, or the equivalent of nearly 8,000 hectares, with traditional vehicles typically remaining parked 96% of the time.
There are 205 incubators and 163 accelerators in the UK. An estimated 3,660 new businesses per year are supported by accelerators in the UK.
Government research found that within 5 years of accelerator formation in a given region, an additional £48m was invested in the high-tech industry, relative to the non-high tech industry. Corresponding to an estimated increase of 243%.
Huge economic opportunities lie in rural economies: rural areas make up 90% of England’s land, house 17% of the population (9.5 million people live in rural areas compared to 46.2 million people in urban areas) and generate 15.8% of England’s GDP.
Once dominated only by farming, rural areas are now home to a wide range of businesses – services, manufacturing and the public sector are drivers of rural economies. 24% of all registered businesses in England are in rural areas.
1 in 10 high-street stores are now empty in the UK, the highest vacancy rate since 2014.
London has more than 600 high streets and 90% of Londoners live within 10 minutes of their high street.
COVID-19 has changed the way that people feel about their local area, with over 63% saying they have changed how they engage with their neighbours and local community. This indicates that there is a public desire for the ‘15 Minute City’ concept and a strong opportunity for planners to rebuild local High Streets.
Sources 1. INvolve (2018). 2. BNPPRE. 3. BNPPRE 4. Stanton, 2019. 5. UN Environnent Programme 2019 6. Warburg-HIH Invest, 2020. 7. Big Society Capital, 2019 8. Wiredscore, 2019. 9. Forbes, 2019 10. Econsult Solutions 2019. 11. European Cycling Federation, 2020 12. WSP, 2016. 13. Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy, The impact of business accelerators and incubators in the UK, 2019 14. Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy, 2019. 15. Time for a strategy for the rural economy, House of Lords, 2019 16. DEFRA, Statistical Digest of Rural England, 2019. 17.Springboard, 2020 18. Mayor of London, August 2020 19. Hubbub, 2020.