Exodus hits town and city centres
Home working and cutbacks empty offices
BUSINESS AND political leaders have been urged to ensure that town and city centres in Yorkshire are not “hollowed out” and left to slip into a sharper decline after witnessing an exodus of workers due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The crisis caused by the virus has had a devastating impact on the nation’s economy with hundreds of thousands of jobs already lost and consumer spending dramatically undermined.
Many employees are continuing to work from home in the wake of the lockdown, leaving offices empty and prompting grave concerns for the future of city and town centres across the country.
KPMG UK’s head of property, construction and building products for the North, Giles Taylor, warned businesses are in “unchartered waters”, with most likely to look to reduce office space after successfully moving to home-working.
Mr Taylor confirmed many companies are beginning to rethink the traditional models of working and it is clear some will look to reduce their office space.
He added: “Nobody wants to see our region’s town and city centres hollowed out. To ensure they remain vibrant and successful, the business community will need to work closely with civic leaders on strategies that enable a more flexible working world, without damaging Yorkshire’s retail and leisure industries.”
A majority of businesses have signalled their intention to return to offices, with 63 per cent of organisations in Yorkshire already heading back to the workplace, according to the Hays UK recruitment consultancy.
In the next three months, 16 per cent of employers in Yorkshire expect their workforce to be fully working in the office, 22 per cent expect staff to be fully remote and 59 per cent expect a mix of remote and working in the office.
However, Britain this week collapsed into its largest recession on record after the lockdown sparked a 20.4 per cent contraction between April and June in the biggest slump of any major global economy.
It also emerged this week that 730,000 workers have been removed from the payrolls of British companies since March when the lockdown began.
Before the pandemic, hospitality provided 210,000 jobs in Yorkshire and equated to eight per cent of regional employment, according to the trade body, UK Hospitality.
Its chief executive Kate Nicholls said: “Hospitality is hugely important to Yorkshire’s economy.
“A major blow to hospitality in the area would be significant damage to the local economy.”
Skipton Building Society, which usually has 1,500 employees operating out of its headquarters, currently only has 200 staff at the office at any given time. Its CEO David Cutter said the firm envisages that number will increase to 350 by the autumn.
The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) has called on councils in Yorkshire and the North of England to distribute £1.5bn of funds to small businesses in a “fast and timely manner”.
The FSB’s chairman, Mike Cherry, said: “In all areas where offices remain closed, those firms nearest continue to suffer, and those locations faced with localised lockdowns face an uphill struggle for survival.”
Labour has urged the Government to redeploy funding from its business grants programme rather than clawing it back “prematurely” from local authorities, as part of a Hospitality and High Streets Fightback Fund.