POLITICS ‘Yesterday’s thinking won’t
Finding the keys to unlocking Leicester’s post-Covid potential
Radical new thinking is needed if Leicester city centre is going to not just survive, but thrive, beyond the pandemic. This was the lesson from an event hosted by the Chamber in partnership with Leicestershire Business Voice and BID Leicester, in which research by a prominent think-tank illustrated why attracting businesses that employ high-skilled professionals should be a priority. Dan Robinson reports.
independent shops could be most important to another profile of city dweller. But at the Centre for Cities, a think-tank with
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a mission to help the UK’s largest cities and towns realise their economic potential, it has come up with a formula that suggests the healthiest city centres feature roughly three- times as much office space than retail. Leicester, though, is composed of 40% shops
and 27% office space. Given how retail has transformed to online in recent years – a trend accelerated during the pandemic – it has become less of an asset and no doubt contributes to the fact the East Midlands city also has a higher-than-average high street vacancy rate (15% versus 12%). But the real issue behind an “over-reliance” on
retail is the impact on office stock, which is low in both quality and quantity. It means Leicester can struggle to attract high-skilled businesses in industries such as professional and financial services, as well as software development. These employers tend to pay high salaries and
prefer city centre locations. It has a knock-on impact on local economies as workers will spend their money in city centre services such as cafés, restaurants and hairdressers. Valentine Quinio, a researcher at the Centre
for Cities, explains: “The rise of online shopping is less of a threat than the lack of spending power, so the challenge now lies in attracting these high-skilled businesses, which will in turn benefit the whole economy. Policy needs to focus on making the city centre an attractive place for businesses to locate and this will require investing in skills, commercial and office space, transport and the public realm.”
FOOTFALL IS ANOTHER good indicator of a strong city centre. Data collected by the think- tank before the pandemic shows activity in
52 business network March 2021
he concept of a “strong city centre” may be a very subjective definition – while some enjoy a bustling nightlife, others may seek a fine cultural selection and a wide choice of
Leicester peaked during weekends, which was also when the sharpest recovery took place during summer 2020 as restrictions eased – although remaining stricter in Leicester than other cities due to the local lockdown. In the strongest cities, the highest footfall is
found during weekdays as workers buy coffees and breakfast on their way to the office and use lunchbreaks to shop. While remote working is expected to continue
at least in part post-Covid, Valentine expects a hybrid approach as young employees will prefer the social environment of the office, which is also important to their learning and career development. She says Leicester has traditionally “played a
much more muted role as a place for work”, which is also explained by skills issues – it has roughly a third of the national average for the proportion of residents with degree-level qualifications. Valentine adds: “This has a knock-on impact
on the strength of the high street because activity peaking on a weekday means it is workers who have more money to spend on the high street on a daily basis.”
‘A city like Leicester has massive potential to grow and excel’
Going forward, Valentine urges decision-makers to consider a mixed-use approach to the city centre make-up, a scenario that could also impact positively on the vibrancy of the high street. Thankfully, the city has a relatively large
proportion of industrial space at 15% – double the recommended level – which offers scope for repurposing into different uses, such as offices. And while access to public transport is
comparatively poor compared to other cities, Leicester benefits from a higher than average “active travel” uptake – people walking and cycling to work, for example.
Chris Hobson “That is a strength because it’s something
many other cities will be looking to improve in the future,” adds Valentine.
THE CONTEXT BEHIND this is that there are opportunities to be seized. Research from the Office for National Statistics found the number of people leaving London reached a 10-year high in 2019. The pandemic is forcing many others in the
capital to reconsider where they live, with Totaljobs research finding a quarter (26%) of Londoners were able to work outside the city during lockdown. Businesses will likely also follow and smaller
cities like those in the East Midlands stand to benefit should they have the right offer. Reflecting on the Centre for Cities data at the
webinar, titled Learning from economic trends and the pandemic to create better places for the future: How is Leicester shaping up?, the Chamber’s director of policy and external affairs Chris Hobson says the recovery “presents a fantastic opportunity to think differently”. He adds: “While in the here and now it is all too easy to see the challenges, as the economy
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