Transforming The High Street...

From redundant office blocks to old cinema and club sites, bold new plans are set to shape the future of the sites, changing the skyline forever.

In the biggest application, submitted to Southend Council, Comer Homes wants to turn Alexander House, an old HMRC office block in Victoria Avenue, into 557 self-contained flats with shops on the ground floor.

Another benefit of the 'working from home' movement? 

In Alexander Street, developer Vikesh Kotecha has submitted plans to convert the partially-demolished Empire Theatre, later known as the ABC cinema, into 22 luxury self-contained flats with shops on the ground floor.

The same developer is also planning on a development on the former Churchill’s diner site, in Tylers Avenue, which has been vacant since 2021.

This is where new homes need to be built, not on the greenbelt! But the utilities and services need to be increased in line with them. And seldom does that ever happen.

They Are Getting Worried, Aren't They?

Good!

Office workers in central London are spending on average 2.3 days a week in the workplace, according to a report that warns against a wholesale switch to working from home.

And who has commissioned this report? Someone with an agenda? 

The thinktank Centre for Cities carried out polling of office workers in the capital and found they were spending 59% of the time in their workplace compared with pre-Covid levels.

But the report, entitled Office Politics: London and the Rise of Home Working, warns that, despite the upfront benefits for staff in terms of better work-life-balance and less commuting, there may be longer-term costs for the capital in terms of lost productivity.

Ah. Of course. Who else commissions reports these days? 

He pointed to firms’ ability to hire staff from a local pool of high-skilled labour, as well as the benefits within companies of the creativity that comes with face-to-face interaction, and the on-the-job learning that takes place between colleagues.

Yup, we hear the same crap from my workplace, disregarding the fact that many teams are scattered around the country and so never meet (except virtually) anyway... 

The report, supported by the Eastern City business improvement district, which includes firms in that part of London, calls for policies to encourage workers to return.

These could include scrapping peak-time fares on a Friday morning to tempt commuters, and launching a public information campaign to underline the benefits of office life.

Well, who could argue with a public information campaign? We all know how truthful they are... 

Aw, Iain, Don't Cry Because You Can't Waste Taxpayer Cash...

New Government buildings are being laid out on the assumption they will only ever be half-full, as many civil servants are still working from home. Rules for office design have been quietly changed because 'average attendance will be lower' as a result of the new working practices.

Hurrah! Think of the taxpayer money saved! 

Last night former Cabinet minister Sir Iain Duncan Smith said: 'Ministers have lost control.

'Staff should turn up to work in the places they were meant to occupy. It seems like a poor service and could damage people's lives.'

Oh. Silly me, wasting it is, after all, what MPs are for, isn't it? 

John Lewis is looking to slash the size of its London office by half as thousands of its staff now work from home. The John Lewis Partnership, which also owns Waitrose, has hired property experts Tuckerman to find new offices 'half' the size of its current 220,000sq ft headquarters in Victoria, London.

'Like many businesses, we don't need as much space now we have a blended approach to working in offices, home and out in the business.

'As our requirements for office space reduce, we also expect to reduce our occupancy costs.'

Sensible. But then, it's their money, and not somone else's... 

Always Finding The Cloud In The Silver Lining...

During the past few years, we have witnessed a revolution in working life. When home working became more common during the Covid pandemic, many assumed this would be a temporary change. Yet according to data released this week by the Office for National Statistics, between September 2022 and January 2023, 16% of the workforce still worked solely from home, while 28% were hybrid workers who split their time between home and the office.

Hurrah, the 'Guardian' has found a success st...

Oh, wait! 

But what the data makes starkly clear is that the working from home revolution has not touched everyone’s lives equally. The ONS survey found that workers on salaries of more than £50,000, people with degrees, Londoners and white people had the highest rates of home or hybrid working – and were less likely to be required to go in every day.

So..? Isn't that a function of the jobs they tend to be concentrated in, more than anything else? 

There are many people working in the service, care and transportation sectors, for instance, who can’t work from home at all.

Well, yes.  

Overall, though, this revolution could change work and our lives outside work for the better – but to do so, it must be accessible to more than just the highest paid, most privileged workers.

How do you plan to allow a black Northern plumber to work from home to balance it out then?