EDITOR’S COMMENT Putting words on this page every week is one of my favourite parts of my job. It is a phenomenal opportunity and honour to open the magazine and – provided, of course, that you don’t just see my face on the page and skip on by – to talk directly to you.
It is often the hardest part of the role, too – knowing exactly what to talk to you about. Should we talk about the market and the deals and activity taking place? Or should we delve deeper and talk about the people in this sector, who they are, how they are and what we’re doing to enable them, and therefore the sector, to grow?
It is a conundrum I find myself in often.
This week, for example, I was ready to talk about Birmingham – the UK’s second city and how it is working really hard to shake off its brutalist image to blossom as a well-connected, talent- and opportunity-filled city. It’s doing pretty well. Big-name corporates are choosing the city for major bases, and the public and private sectors are working together to open the city up to enable workers and residents to easily move around the city to live, work and play.
And this week Deborah Cadman officially took up the role of interim chief executive of the city council. Cadman won’t allow the city’s progress to stall. Be prepared to see and hear a lot more about its Future City Plan and how Birmingham is going to achieve all of its ambitions, from delivering great new commercial space for increasingly discerning occupiers and providing housing for all to “turning the concrete green”.
And, of course, it is putting on the biggest sporting event of 2022, with the hosting of the Commonwealth Games.
Then, I was planning to talk about the future of offices. It is a topic our data tells us our audience loves. What is the future of the office? Has it changed forever? Is the office market in dire straits? No. Not even close. The London office leasing market is bubbling with activity. Occupiers are increasing their footprints in the right places and right spaces. And from the conversations I’ve been having this week – in town, in real life – the vast majority of us are eager to get back to our work desks. Back to lunches, coffee meetings and something that just feels like the old days.
The office is far from being dead, it is brimming with life.
But a flick through my Twitter timeline and the sombre reading of YouGov’s survey on racism in the office had me ready to do a complete turn and dedicate these words to the human side of real estate. And to question how, in 2021, after everything we have collectively been through, the world can still be so behind. How 54% of all FTSE All-Share companies can have no women on their boards; how almost half of Black office workers have experienced racism; and how discrimination of any sort is still allowed to exist in any of our businesses.
Birmingham’s renaissance, the uptick in occupational activity and those shocking stats above are all about talent, however. A topic we pick up this week. We take a look at how much harder the sector is going to have to work to be inclusive in a post-Covid, probably hybrid world, to make sure that all talent gets the same opportunities, no matter where people are. No matter who they are, or what their journey into real estate may be.
But while I’m continually saddened by the headlines of how business wastes and abuses talent, I remain encouraged by how leaders across our sector are working hard to bring about change.
To send feedback, e-mail samantha.mcclary@eg.co.uk or tweet @samanthamcclary or @EGPropertyNews
