EDITOR’S COMMENT Two years ago, almost to the day, prime minister Boris Johnson gave that first order for us to work from home, irreversibly shifting the psyche of the great British commuter.
From 23 March 2020 onwards, huge swathes of the population have asked themselves what need they have to go into the office and not just robotically got onto a Tube, train, bus, bike or into their car and gone to the office. From that day forward, offices and employees have had to provide a service to workers, not just a space.
Now, don’t worry, this isn’t going to be yet another pontification on the future of the office – the answer to that is clear. It does have a future, it just has to be better.
But isn’t that the answer to everything that we have experienced over the past two years? We have to be better. Full stop.
Looking back at the words I wrote here two years ago when the pandemic began to take hold in the UK, I suggested that this was an opportunity to learn. An opportunity to get lean, to innovate, become more productive and to understand the value of time, space and humanity. In those early days of the pandemic there were so many offers of help, so many charitable donations, extensions of a virtual hand.
Looking back now, I have to admit it is hard to remember those stories. My memories are instead clouded with the headlines about moratoriums, unpaid rent – billions of pounds of it – and the breakdown in relations between landlord and tenant.
But as the dust settles and we get back to what feels more and more like normal – the return to our offices, shops and social gatherings – now seems like the perfect opportunity to pause for a second and see what changes for the better we have made.
We have embraced a more flexible approach to working; have started to understand the purpose of our working environments; (some) landlords and tenants have started having different discussions, working as partners for the benefit of both.
And, while I am still firmly in the camp that believes that most in this industry are just talking about ESG rather than actually doing something about it, the fact that we haven’t stopped talking about it is an absolute plus to take away from the past two years.
But the crisis we faced back on 23 March 2020 hasn’t gone away. Covid is still here (ask anyone who gathered with thousands of others in Cannes last week), and the invasion of Ukraine is touching us all.
Couple that with the fact that UK inflation has hit a 30-year high, and the difficulties we face are about to be turned up again. Costs will soar and this will impact our market. We won’t be able to deliver as much, and our plans to develop a more ESG-friendly environment will be curtailed. Viability will become an issue. Construction costs are already a worry, contractors are already struggling, and the knock-on effect of collapses will be felt across real estate.
To me, all of that means that we absolutely have to look back on what the past two years have taught us. The lessons we learnt around collaboration, around reaching out that hand of help, of engaging with our communities and people, of being able to work positively and productively in a lean environment, will be vital in ensuring we navigate the next crises.
To send feedback, e-mail samantha.mcclary@eg.co.uk or tweet @samanthamcclary or @EGPropertyNews
