This time last year, the chief executives of real estate were penning their predictions for 2020, primed for publication in EG and elsewhere: “Retail is not dead”; “2020 will be a little different”; “More co-living providers”. We believed it too. We really had no idea.
On 23 March, when prime minister Boris Johnson told 67m people in the UK to stay at home and started talking about ventilators, we still didn’t have much of a clue of what was coming. I began quietly buying more tinned food, downloaded MS Teams and hunkered down.
With the world outside broken and inside quiet, I turned to the stories of other people. “What has lockdown made you think about?” I wrote in countless email pitches. Suddenly, there were woodland rambles, digital planning committees and a smorgasbord of evening beverages. Those conversations became our lockdown diaries column, in which more than 30 industry leaders have now shared their experiences of living and working through the pandemic.
Nobody could have predicted Bill Hughes’ James Bond villain-esque chair, Nick Walkley’s aversion to Spandau Ballet or Jane Hollinshead’s boxing skills – or their willingness to share this.
‘I’m a people person. I find isolation tough’
“Initially, we were looking at this as a ‘China’ concern,” says Nigel Henry. It’s 7 April and the chief executive of Fusion Students has been helping people get home. Some 70% of Fusion’s students are from China and Henry has been following coronavirus since December. “Now, of course, it’s a global concern,” he adds.
His day is spent focused on temporary change of use to non-students, with onsite updates following shutdowns and cost-cutting. Henry knows Fusion will lose income for the 2019 academic year. Now he is thinking about 2020. “We don’t know whether universities are going to open for the next academic year, we also don’t know if borders will be open.”
In lockdown, a new routine emerges. Sadie Morgan smiles to the tiny woman with the enormous fluffy white dog she passes each morning on her walk from London Bridge to Westminster, plugged in to the Today programme. “I try to ration myself to two lots of news a day; my need to know balanced with the relentlessness of the situation,” she says.
“I’m a people person, so I find isolation very tough. I am lucky, I have a nice apartment with a small sunny terrace, which has made me reflect on those not so fortunate,” Morgan adds. She is thinking about homes and space, access to shops and neighbours. “I have never before valued every square centimetre of live, work and play space as much as I do now.”
After six weeks, lockdown gradually starts to lift. In Birmingham, WMCA chief executive Deborah Cadman is getting ready for schools to reopen. On 20 May she hosts housing secretary Robert Jenrick, business secretary Alok Sharma and DWP secretary Thérèse Coffey in the government’s first ever regional coronavirus impact meeting.
“It is an opportunity to hear what government is planning and for us to show what we are doing,” says Cadman. “The particular make-up of the West Midlands and its heavy reliance on automotive, construction and manufacturing makes it especially vulnerable.”
The disproportionate impact on BAME communities is one area of particular concern and Cadman is awaiting Public Health England’s review. But she is hopeful the region can bounce back: “This time we have an opportunity to build an economy that is greener and more inclusive.”
In June, anti-racism demonstrators protest police brutality in the US, in support of the Black Lives Matter movement. It forces the question: “Are we creating safe environments, where people can live, work and play?”
As the month draws to a close, Appear Hear founder Ross Bailey shares his mission to help anyone with an idea to bring that to life. “The word ‘anyone’ is really important to us and our belief in levelling the playing field,” says Bailey. Appear Here has been running online events for its community and Bailey reflects on the most recent broadcast on diversity in retail.
“We listened to Black entrepreneurs who had tried to launch a store and been rejected multiple times, but said Appear Here had finally given them a platform to begin,” he says. “Having a fairer society starts with giving more people access and making it easier for anyone to have their voice heard.” This is a running theme in Bailey’s strategy day, which includes a prohibition-style lunch in lockdown.
‘It’s not just professional, it’s personal’
“Eat out to help out” the government urges, with 50% discounts to try to boost restaurants in August. The £500m scheme is accompanied by expanded licensing and planning policies that see the streets fill with al fresco offerings in the heatwave.
“The tables are filling up fast with diners and an array of regional Chinese cuisines,” says Shaftesbury’s group restaurant strategy executive, Julia Wilkinson, as she passes through Chinatown in search of a pork bun treat. Wilkinson is working with 300 small and independent operators in the West End. “They have faced significant challenges during the pandemic. Now, we are working closely to support their re-openings, as people come back to work and resume their normal routines and spending habits,” she says.
These same operators are burned by a 10pm curfew in September that hits pubs, restaurants and live venues. London night czar Amy Lamé and mayor Sadiq Khan lobby government to ditch the rule and provide strengthened emergency packages.
“For me, the impact of these restrictions is not just professional, it’s personal,” says Lamé. The DJ and radio host is fighting the “devastating effect” of the crisis on London’s night-time economy. “The capital’s hustle and bustle has been a familiar soundtrack to my life, but since the lockdown its volume has been turned right down,” she says.
The year continues, as planners digest the biggest reform to the system since the Second World War and America heads to the polls to vote for a new president.
In another part of the world John Forbes is cycling up a mountain, covered in horseshit. November sees a second national lockdown, with Forbes’s account filed from Black Mountain in South Wales. Forbes and his dog Alfie are advising clients in back-to-back video calls, inspiring Lord of the Rings comparisons and much-needed comic relief.
Finally, as we sign off, SEGRO chief executive David Sleath is optimistic about next year. Sleath started lockdown digging a trench in his garden for a BT engineer and will end with a 350-employee all-hands call, reflecting on 2020. All those MS Teams calls and online shopping deliveries have sparked a surge in industrial and data centres demand for the 100-year old company. We see the scale of change this year – both across the industry and in our lives – as Sleath decides to embrace vegetarianism in the weeks before Christmas. Like so much of the year, not what we expected at all.
To send feedback, e-mail emma.rosser@egi.co.uk or tweet @EmmaARosser or @estatesgazette
