EDITOR’S COMMENT: As someone whose professional interests combine real estate and clear communication, I have to ask: what on earth are ministers thinking? Are they on a mission to undo the great steps forward taken in innovation and collaboration within the real estate sector with every measure announced?
First destroyed was the goodwill that was being built up between landlords and occupiers (or space providers and customers) by drawing hard battle lines between the two parties, pitting them against each other instead of enabling collaboration, a meeting in the middle, a new, fair and mutually beneficial solution.
And then this week government releases its 60-page Our plan to rebuild and a collection of “return to the workplace” guidelines.
The guidelines paint a picture of a workplace that, to me anyway, seems entirely dead. Devoid of life, spirit and any kind of meaningful human interaction. There will, however, be plenty of light and fresh air, for which I am very much in favour.
But really, who wrote these guidelines, and at any point did they think about human behaviour or human needs?
I get that government and industry want to get people back to the workplace, especially after the record shrinkage of the UK economy. And I get that not everyone has the luxury of being able to work from home. But the guidelines are horrendous.
Gone is the future vision of a workplace that is full of areas where employees can connect, where teams can collaborate, hang out and innovate, and returned is the stereotypical vision of a 1980s cubicle office with individuals barricaded off from one another.
To maintain social distancing wherever possible, employees must be discouraged from making non-essential trips within buildings. No more having a natter at the coffee machine. And if you are able to walk around your office, you will only be able to do so in one direction.
Creating these workplace prisons is not going to help the UK deal with its productivity problem. I don’t want to go back to an office where I must follow strict rules and regulations. I don’t want to go back to a place where any creative or collaborative inclination I may have has to be put in a box, sanitised and then shared at a distance, preferably virtually.
And is any of this really workable? Colliers International reckons that the guidelines will in practice mean that only 40% of the workforce can go back to their place of work. That means 8m people will be unable to return without making workplaces become unsafe.
Has government thought about what the guidelines really mean for business? I’m no scientist, but I’m convinced these “Covid secure” guidelines will be in place until we have a vaccine and/or have eradicated the virus from these shores. And that isn’t coming any time soon.
Do businesses have the capex available to completely redesign their workplaces as Boris says we will need to do? Can touch-free technology be installed across the built environment at ease and the speed needed to “rebuild” our economy? Will government be providing grants for the expenditure? And if businesses can only utilise their office space for 40% of their workforce at any given time, what is that going to mean for rents? Would a business really want to have to use the same amount of space (under the guidelines) but get less out of it for the same rent? Doubtful. Is government again making UK real estate a less attractive investment proposition? And don’t get me started on the infrastructure issues. How we even get to the workplace requires many, many more words.
The future of work and the future of the workplace are undoubtedly changed. Whether that change is workable remains to be debated. There must be better solutions than these outdated, half-baked measures from government, and we think our industry holds the key. We will shortly be launching a competition to see what solutions real estate can come up with that put functionality, creativity, safety and humans at the heart of new office design.
To send feedback, e-mail samantha.mcclary@egi.co.uk or tweet @samanthamcclary or @estatesgazette
