News

The office market isn’t dead, but our attitude to long commutes and the 9-5 routine has changed forever according to one of Worcestershire’s most experienced commercial property agents.

Speaking at the Worcestershire LEP’s Virtual Conference, John Dillon who is a Worcestershire LEP board member and managing director at Worcestershire commercial property consultancy and Chartered Surveyors GJS Dillon, said:

‘In Worcester, we have lots of office blocks and SME businesses based in business parks which provide enough room for office workers to space out. However we need to start thinking about bringing more offices into the City to help the wider local economy’

But he thinks that those who commute into Birmingham from Worcester will want to retain a more flexible working pattern

‘We have a great opportunity to continue working more flexibly in the future. So that could mean working from home 2 or 3 days a week but then having an office to go to for a meeting or work with colleagues in a socially distanced environment’

For business owners in Birmingham city centre, Mr Dillon believes there is an opportunity for them to reconsider their location:

‘Business owners in Birmingham may well be asking themselves whether they need to be in the City centre at all. With Worcestershire’s central location they might consider relocating to an office somewhere else in the County and take advantage of the excellent motorway networks and railway links’

In contrast to the upheaval taking place in the office market, he maintains that the industrial sector is strong but there needs to be more new build accommodation for micro and small businesses.

‘As we’ve said previously, there needs to be more small and mid-sized industrial units in Worcestershire to cater for SMEs. As a result of the redundancies we’re seeing now, online enterprises will spring up, just as they did after the 2008 recession. They will be looking for space and storage on a short-term basis and we have to be able to cater for that market’

To view John Dillon’s contribution to the Healthy Worcestershire feature at the Worcestershire LEP Virtual Conference click here https://www.wlep.co.uk/virtual-conference-2020-healthy-worcestershire-feature-available/

For a general no-obligation discussion contact the GJS Dillon team on 01905 676169 or via email at info@gjsdillon.co.uk

With offices in Bromsgrove, Droitwich and Worcester, GJS Dillon was the Estates Gazette’s ‘Most Active Agent in Worcestershire’ award winner for 2019. It offers a comprehensive commercial property service, including commercial agency, acquisition and business relocation, commercial property management, valuations and landlord and tenant rent reviews, and unrivalled geographical coverage, throughout Worcestershire and along the M5 and A38 corridors.