YTREPORP TNACAV
A POST-PANDEMIC BIG ISSUE As the UK finally starts to open up again fully, it’s very apparent things are definitely not back to life as we knew it before Covid hit us and the country went into lockdown in March 2020. People are still apprehensive, and many fearful of yet another wave and the possibility of further restrictions again. The mutating virus makes planning and strategy almost impossible to get right, whether you are in Government or business.
have started to terminate their leases as they realise staff can work remotely and the cost savings are enormous. Others are downsizing to smaller premises so there is all sorts of movement in the lettings market as tenants come and go and re-organise. Apart from the change to our shopping habits, something which was already evident before the pandemic, lockdown has proved devastating to the nation’s high streets. Even before COVID-19, 2540% of retail space was no longer viable or needed. The demise of household names and familiar brands still continues apace but it is not
BY CLEARWAY SERVICES/GLOBAL GUARDIANS
just the big chains that have suffered.
For office-based staff, working life has changed. Although a lot of employees are gradually
Hospitality in particular has taken a serious hit, but so have a multitude
making their way back to their former desks,
of small independent retailers – the continued lockdowns and
most seem to be operating under a hybrid
restrictions simply went on too long and people couldn’t hold out. At
arrangement of part remote/part office work
the start of 2021, it was estimated that some 50% of retail rents from
and no one knows how long this will be the
2020 remained unpaid and the UK’s high streets had lost more than
norm, or indeed if the classic Monday to Friday
17,500 chain store outlets with an average daily closure of 48 shops,
in an office, 9-5.30, will ever return. How this
restaurants and other leisure and hospitality venues.
impacts on the commercial property market long term is something else unknown, but it is
This crisis has not been simply down to change of retail habits or
obvious many companies
Government regulations. Without the bustle and daily business
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Spectrum
| Summer 2021
