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Building Blocks
By
Anthony Breach
,
Rebecca McDonald
| 26 June 2018
Building Blocks
By
Anthony Breach
,
Rebecca McDonald
| 26 June 2018
Select Chapter
Executive Summary
Introduction
How does the supply of commercial property vary across cities?
Figure Figure 1: Composition of commercial floor space in city centres and suburbs, 2017
Figure Figure 2: Composition of commercial floorspace in Leicester, 2017
Figure The property offers of city centres and suburbs are determined by their exporting base
Figure Box 1: A typology of city centres and suburbs
Figure Figure 3: The size and make-up of the exporting base in city centres and suburbs
Figure Successful city centres are dominated by office space
Figure Figure 4: Composition of commercial floorspace in different types of city centre, 2017
Figure Many weak city centres have too many shops
Figure Figure 6: High street services vacancy rate for each city centre, 2017–2018
Figure Figure 7: High street services vacancy rate, by type of city centre
Figure Strong city centres have more diverse high street services
Figure Figure 8: Supply of food and leisure space in city centres and vacancy rates of high street services, 2017 – 2018
Figure Box 2: Commercial property in the city centres of Leeds and Doncaster
Figure Figure 9: Composition of commercial floor space in the city centres of Leeds and Doncaster, 2017
Figure There is less variation in the make-up of suburban commercial space
Figure Figure 10: Composition of commercial floor space in different types of suburb, 2017
Figure Office quality is better in suburbs than in city centres, even though high-skilled firms preferring suburban office space are rare
Figure Figure 11: Office quality in city centres and suburbs, by type of city centre, 2018
Figure Box 3: Why is some high knowledge work in the suburbs?
Figure Industrial space is in decline but logistics is becoming more important
Figure Figure 12: Change in total industrial and logistics floor space, by city, 2001 – 2016
Figure Box 4: Commercial property in the suburbs of York and Northampton
Figure Summary of findings
What are cities currently doing?
Figure Many cities are taking active steps to improve their office stock
Figure Case study 1: Firms choosing to move back into Bradford city centre
Figure Cities are keeping up with changing demand for office space
Figure Cities are using lots of small interventions to ensure there is a variety of city centre office space available
Figure Case study 2: Flexible occupier criteria key to office success in Huddersfield
Figure Case study 3: Using the University of Liverpool’s estate to deliver research space
Figure Less is being done by cities to reduce reliance on retail
Figure Case study 4: Retail scheme success difficult even in Oxford’s strong city economy
Figure Cities are supporting their high-skilled suburbs and strengthening their city centres
Figure Case study 5: Warrington’s high-skilled suburban business park
Figure Brownfield land is being remediated
Figure Cities are allocating land in suburbs for logistics space
What role should the public sector play in delivering this commercial space?
Figure Policy recommendations for national government
Figure Policy recommendations for city centres
Figure Policy recommendations for suburbs
05
5: Office stock quality and quantity by city centre, 2017
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