The Estates Gazette Question Time roadshow visited Bristol and explored the region’s prospects for attracting more businesses
The panel
• John Stacey, asset management director, UK and European Investments
• Bonnie Dean, chief executive, Quintain’s Bristol and Bath Science Park
• Paddy Hales, director, UK investment, Savills
• Chairman: Damian Wild, editor, Estates Gazette
What should Bristol do to attract more businesses and government departments out of London?
Bonnie Dean
The Bristol region, and I include Bath in that, needs to have a very coherent marketing effort. We need to do something around building the brand so that it’s clear what the brand values are, and what’s on offer here.
When people come down here to look at what they can offer to employees, what’s available, and the skill levels here, they’re surprised and impressed.
I’m pleased they’re impressed, but I don’t think they should be surprised, because we have one of the highest concentrations of graduates in this region, and I don’t think people realise that.
The Local Enterprise Partnership has been doing some work benchmarking other cities in the UK to try and see what we should be doing to market the region better, but I hope we will chart our own path, because I think we have some unique things to offer here.
In doing that, I hope we will take some professional advice and really join up both the marketing effort and the branding of the city and the larger region in terms of what we have to offer.
We had nine government ministers down at the end of February for a large advanced manufacturing conference. I think they were impressed, but again, surprised. They didn’t realise that we have the second highest concentration of silicon design companies here outside Silicon Valley.
There are a number of other strengths in the region that they simply weren’t aware of, that again we should be promoting. We are unusual as a city region because we do have so many strong sectors, whether it’s aerospace, whether it’s clean tech, whether it’s silicon chip design, or whether it’s creative and digital industries. We’re not just dependent on one, and we should be promoting that fact, and we should be promoting what happens under those sectors because of the range of other technologies that have come up to support those sectors.
And we just have so much to talk about as a region that I think every one of us needs to be an ambassador, and then I also think we need our city councils and the LEP to put together a very strong, aggressive message, and a marketing campaign.
Does the region have the right credentials and space to attract new businesses?
John Stacey
We’re a London-based investor. We’ve invested and developed in Bristol over a number of years, and we are confident in Bristol, both in terms of what we have done to date, and what we expect to do next.
If you look at Bristol in the wider context of the UK, as a region it’s got everything that it needs in place: good infrastructure and a well-educated and stable workforce. Also, I think there is a USP in Bristol: it’s very much behind the green agenda, which is what a lot of occupiers are looking for. And we do see, perhaps more in the private sector than the public sector, good quality, sustainable buildings that are ultimately very efficient. Obviously, the issue to bear in mind there is that we need to continue to deliver good buildings that are well located to an acceptable standard to make sure that, if we’re going to pull an occupier out of London where those buildings are prevalent, that the same specification or level of quality is available in the regions where, fundamentally, it’s just a damn sight cheaper to be located.
One thing about Bristol in particular, if you compare it with a lot of the regions, is that the availability of brand-new space is relatively modest compared with some of the other subcentres, such as Leeds and Manchester. So obviously there is a tightening of availability.
What is very important for Bristol is the next step in terms of development. I do think we’re very close to some form of speculative development. I don’t think it’s immediate. I think a few more deals will see somebody, whoever that may be – it may be us – but somebody, will take a step towards putting their money where their mouth is and starting to build.
It’s not at a stage where there isn’t any space. There is good space available. We have a building at Temple Back where there’s 70,000 sq ft available. Bridgewater House has just come onto the market. There are two good-quality buildings there in addition to other grade A space where the types of occupier that we were talking about attracting can be accommodated successfully.
The biggest issue, of course, is that if you get a 200,000 sq ft requirement, where is it going to go? But let’s face it, if that’s coming on stream, then there’s an opportunity for a number of people to develop on a prelet basis.
Is the high street in the South West doomed and can politicians save it?
Paddy Hales
There is a lot of doom and gloom at the moment about retail. We are seeing a lot of failures. But those failures are tending to be due to the boom that was seen, and high debts placed against companies that were otherwise successful.
A place where there has been a lot of success is in neighbourhood retailing. If you look back 15 or 20 years, the idea of going to a deli and a coffee shop next to a French baker in some of these smaller neighbourhoods was not happening. They were dying. Your old butcher disappeared, your old baker disappeared, everyone was going to the supermarket. The feeling was that we were never going to have any neighbourhood, suburban retail ever again.
Well, frankly, yes, we have got Tesco, but now it’s opening a convenience store. And next door around here, we’ve got a Chandos Deli sitting next to a new Costa Coffee. Everyone sees Costa Coffee as another global brand. Well, actually, it’s another vibrant high-street use. The people are going in and sitting down, and enjoying themselves.
There is far more buzz in the suburban retail environment today, I think, than there was 15 or 20 years ago.
That said, it does tend to be targeted towards the more affluent locations. So yes, we’re going to see some changes. Yes, there are places where it may become very difficult, but don’t be too down on the retail market.
I think the idea of bringing political will back to the high street is a very good thing. The question has to be: has the horse already bolted with the amount of out-of-town retail that is in supply throughout most of the UK? The encouragement to get more markets in towns, to make more vibrant places, I think it is a nice concept, but I don’t know how some of the higher-end retailers, for example Gap, are going to feel when they have a market selling Mickey Mouse T-shirts directly outside their unit.
