commercial property
. . . despite the local pressures shown below . . .
The infographic below helped form the basis of a discussion around some of the major factors affecting the Thames Valley office market.
Charlie Nicholson, partner at Vail Williams, commented: “This visual illustration helped facilitate debate around the trends and influences affecting landlords’ and occupiers’ respective decisions around their development, investment and
occupation of premises within the region which has traditionally been framed on a simple linear ‘supply and demand’ basis.
“However with recruitment and retention, smart cities, connectivity, transport links and the potential ‘push/pull’ debate around the effects of the arrival of the Elizabeth Line all coming into the debate it will be those that identify the opportunities and threats that will most
benefit. The Elizabeth Line will undoubtedly offer benefits for communication links, opening up a huge increase in available workforce, for example from circa 2.6 million in and around the region to in excess of 6m people who will then be situated within a commutable distance. Will all of the impacts be positive to the area for business, or might existing workforces prefer to work in London and enjoy
the ‘buzz’ of the City? How do we locally make the public realm areas fit for purpose and deliver the type of retail and leisure experience that we as consumers now demand?
“This is just one area of a huge range of impacts and pressures on land use that are being played out across the region. Vail Williams is well placed to help business to make the most of the opportunities presented.”
More homes needed across the UK, says minister
The residential property market needs more small and medium- sized builders coming back to the market – in order to meet the UK’s housing needs, Alok Sharma, the minister for housing and planning told the Thames Valley Property Forum audience.
The MP for Reading West said: “We have not built enough houses over decades. It’s not a party political issue as all parties are responsible.
“We need to diversify the market and we need to see a lot of smaller companies come back to the market. We have introduced
various funds to help small and medium-sized builders, but some builders say there are just not enough sites for them.”
THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE – OCTOBER 2017
Sharma said there were 190,000 net additions to the housing stock in the past year, “but we should be building 250,000 homes a year”.
He added that homes needed to be of “really good quality”. That might mean that builders might “want to think about employing people directly” rather than using so many contractors.
“We want well-designed homes that people want to live in,” he said.
On planning consent, Sharma said local authorities needed to
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work together and “talk cross- border” in order that more residential properties could be approved. “We have to deliver a lot more houses and a lot quicker,” he declared.
Sharma appeared at the Forum on the day that the inquiry began into the Grenfell Tower fire. Sharma said there needed to be a national conversation about social housing. “If changes are required, we will make changes,” he said.
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