Moving with the times
Big inward investment wins are good news for the commercial property market. A 70,000 sq ft requirement – the Amey lease at Colmore Plaza in Birmingham – can make a big difference to a city’s office market. It is also good news for recruiters, for those concerned about graduate retention and for support services.
In fact, there’s very little bad news associated with inward investment, unless you go down the ‘more strain on local infrastructure’ route. All of which makes it extremely frustrating that public sector relocation from London to the provinces, as recommended in the Lyons Review and supported by this government, is so painfully slow.
The sense of moving ministries and the like out of the centre of London and into provincial cities, where commercial office space and skilled labour is much cheaper, made sense when Sir Michael Lyons presented his findings some years ago. And it makes even more sense this side of the banking collapse when big savings have to be found in public finances. Selling off a couple of central London ministries to property developers wouldn’t half help in that regard.
But now we are being told by those in the know that decisions on big public sector locations are unlikely to be made this side of the General Election. Thus, the Ministry of Justice requirement for 250,000 sq ft in a provincial city appears to be on hold.
What a terrible shame it would be if such logical, cost-saving decisions were sacrificed at the alter of political expediency. As the Labour administration limps to an end (unless a miracle happens between now and next year) is it too much to ask that it goes out on a bold, redistributive note?
And we don’t yet know enough about Conservative Party policy to know whether it plans to follow Labour down the decentralisation road if elected. The Conservatives talk about trying to achieve public sector savings by cutting down on wastage, but does that extend to spendings on London property prices and salaries? We shall see.
Andy Coyne, editor
