Local offices could bring dream of ‘15-minute towns’ to reality

MANY offices in the future will be around the corner from workers’ homes or just down the street, as the country comes out of pandemic working, one of the UK’s top property bosses has said.

The shift could allow people in the UK to live in so-called 15-minute towns, where most amenities, and work, are within a quarter-hour commute by foot, bike or public transport of residents’ front doors.

It could also take some pressure off public services and the environment.

Mark Dixon, chief executive of IWG Group - which rents out offices in dozens of countries - has a simple reason why office life is unlikely to return to its pre-Covid status quo: “Because it’s what people want, and because it’s what companies want.”

“It’s one of those rare things in business that works for both sides,” he said, pointing to lower commuting costs and time, and lower rent for offices, among several other reasons.

Ever since large parts of the country were forced to work from their living rooms, spare rooms and even bedrooms during the pandemic, the debate over the future of the office space has heated up.

However, the chief executive said that Covid was merely a “forced experiment” which sped up trends that were already happening.

“If you would have asked me a year ago I would have said exactly what I’m saying now, that office space - not all of it, but a large proportion - will be close to where people live,” he said, predicting a building boom in local councils across the UK.”