Confidence seen as key to revival

A revival of business confidence has been heralded as the key to the future for Peterborough’s commercial property market.

Julian Welch, director a Peterborough commercial agents Barker Storey Matthews, said a surge of optimism was still needed despite Chancellor Rishi Sunak unveiling a £30 billion Plan for Jobs to revive the economy as the Covid lockdown eased.

Mr Welch warned the measures would not be of direct help to the commercial property market and only the return of business confidence and economic growth would correct the impact of Covid-19.

He said changes to stamp duty might help the residential property market while the ‘eat out to help out’ scheme would be a temporary boost to the leisure and retail sector. He said: “The stimulus measures are just ‘baby steps’ and the type of measures that were, realistically, the only ones in his gift to take at this point. We’re all looking to have a clearer, more accurate picture of what doing business in the time of Covid-19 looks like and where the economic headwinds will take us by the time of the Chancellor’s Budget in the autumn.”

Julian Welch.