Bricks, Bytes, Behaviours
The Invest North Conference was held on the 24th March 2021. The title for this article has been drawn from the closing comments of the facilitator at The North Unlocked seminar. A video of the full seminar can be found here .
Bricks
The element of bricks spoke about the need for quality office space. Our sector does not have the luxury of income/capital that can be spent on updated offices in modern blocks. This does not mean that it cannot happen. It is just that, to date, it has not been a huge priority unless we have been invited to be anchor tenants in a new build scheme.
That having been said there is a trend for larger commercial operations to move offices – partly because of downsizing due to working from home and partly due to the need for increased space due to distancing regulations. Some of these may well be in prime locations and have long leases. There may be scope to work with them to take on space at a far better price than would have been the case. Some income, from a sub-lease, is going to be better than no income from a vacant space. The vacant space may well attract business rates and thus further add to the (non) occupancy costs. If this route is to be explored it is vital that appropriate legal advice is obtained and acted upon. You don’t want an issue to arise if a sub-lease has been created, or a lease assigned, in a manner that does not satisfy the freeholder/head leaser. Also, when considering a move it is important to recognise all costs that are incurred – including down time, printing, possible new phone numbers (or diverts) etc. Whilst a move does not have to be for life it does have to be for a reasonable anticipated period.
Bytes
As one would expect the bytes section was all about IT. In this seminar it was mainly about infrastructure roll out and how that would attract commercial operations and business to the North. The pandemic has shown how important good IT is. It is important to ensure that both equipment and connectivity is as good as possible. If staff are going to be working from home there may be merit in assisting in upgrading home connections etc. Such a policy may create a tax position for the employee as this could be seen as a benefit in kind. Appropriate advice should be obtained, and documented, to protect the position of the employee. There is also a danger of a two tier terms and conditions of employment. A new employee who has relied on a phone based ISP may not have the capacity to upgrade to a fibre/line/land based system. What do you to then, particularly when other employees may well be paying for their own systems?
Behaviours
This then leads to the behaviours section of the talk. The input, from this, was from the CIPD (Chartered Institute of Personnel Development). This occurs towards the end of the video (38 minutes onwards). It contains many important learning points for the sector. Please take a look- it is brilliant.
Andrew Rainsford, Research & Policy Officer
April 2021
