Covid-19 like other pandemics has accelerated change that perhaps would otherwise have taken decades to deliver.
Here in Newcastle, like other cities across the globe, one of the fastest, almost overnight changes was the shift from office to home working. At the start of lockdown the city became almost deserted as office workers left their desks with no way of knowing when they would return. Now as the Government calls for workers to return, the question is how many businesses will heed this request and how will the city survive with fewer workers? The hope was that September would bring the watershed that the country needed and would see offices refill and life return to cities, in tandem with children going back to school and Universities welcoming back students.
Shops, coffee bars and restaurants were all pinning their survival hopes on this return but so far it hasn’t happened, at least not to the extent that was hoped for and needed. Instead the city’s offices remain largely vacant and from feedback from city businesses it looks likely to remain this way for the sometime to come.
The situation in Newcastle is no different to the rest of the UK and in other countries. The return to ‘normal’ office life has been slow and gradual, with full offices still a rarity. Talks with employers have revealed that the situation is not likely to change this side of Christmas.
To gauge what businesses were thinking and to get an insight into their plans for returning to the office, NE1 teamed up with Invest Newcastle to survey city centre businesses. The key question; what plans had they for returning to work in the city post-Covid 19?
The survey showed that there has been a marked change in how employers see the role of a physical office in their business operations with many believing this change to be permanent. Even businesses whose sole working practices were 100% office-based pre-Coronavirus are now considering a future where their staff work remotely and the need for office space is significantly reduced.
The survey was carried out with over 100 businesses in August. Only 35% envisage ever returning all their staff, full time to Newcastle city centre-based offices. The same number said that a return could be possible in some shape or form in twelve months time.
All those expecting to return to offices at any time suggested that this would not happen overnight, but would be a gradual process over a longer, phased period of time. Among the respondents were a number of large employers with over 250+ staff. Four of these companies warned that they never planned to bring all their staff back into city centre offices even though, prior to Covid, all these businesses had been exclusively office-based. On average, these companies anticipated that eventually only around a third of their workers would return full time.
One revealing finding from the research was that public transport and perceived safety was a key factor in influencing the return to work for both employers and employees. Many respondents felt that more action and reassurance was needed to make people believe public transport was safe to use. Around a third of survey respondents warned that they anticipate a much-reduced need for office space in the future.
It is clear from the survey that Newcastle’s office landscape, like other major cities, has been markedly changed by Covid-19. Businesses have discovered new ways of remote working and have experienced the benefits of a more flexible approach to work blending home and office life. Covid has changed business behaviour and for many being located in an office will be a choice not mandatory for the foreseeable future.
The key challenge for businesses now is to retain what is/was good about office life and working practices and combine it with the new-found understanding of how homeworking and flexibility can benefit a business.
Cities too face the same challenge and in this lies opportunity. Newcastle must step up and play its part in encouraging people back to work, rest and play within the city centre. There needs to be enough good reasons for people to make their way back into town and to ensure that the city centre offer that greets them, including the public realm is safe, attractive and welcoming. We need to make the most of our many assets, improving our public realm, accelerating upgrade plans, striving for quality and being bold.
We look forward to seeing pedestrian priority on Blackett Street, to Grey Street’s footpaths being widened with more businesses using the extra space created and making even more of the Quayside and river basin. Transport must feature in these plans too, so it is clean, easy and safe for people to use to travel into the city centre.
Even if individual offices are less densely occupied, we have a goal to attract more businesses – albeit with a smaller footprint – alongside encouraging more people to choose to live in the city centre, because it is an attractive option. Covid-19 has helped create an opportunity for Newcastle, we now need to champion a modified renaissance for the city centre – because we all have a stake in its success.
