All Comment articles
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InsightThis will be the year of environmental protection and energy performance
There will be two broad themes for our industry as we move through 2022.
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Insight
Could tech save the high street?
All areas of life are enriched by our digital connections, from our relationships with family and friends to the way we interact with colleagues and service providers.
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Insight
EMEA leads on WELL projects
In 2021, we saw extraordinary growth in health and wellbeing related to the built environment at the International WELL Building Institute, the leading authority for transforming health and wellbeing with its people-first approach to buildings, organisations and communities.
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Insight
Levelling Up will be watered down without meanwhile housing
Urban housing needs in the UK are changing rapidly. Nearly 85% of England’s population live in cities, yet proportionally, the stock of affordable housing in cities and towns has decreased dramatically.
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Insight
Hybrid work: a better way of life
Every year, I’m fascinated by the words and phrases that are added to dictionaries. They invariably speak volumes about the times we live in.
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Insight
Can the definition of beauty be built?
Twenty years ago, the late, lamented Commission for Architecture & the Built Environment published a document on design review, including a section on “what makes a good project”.
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Insight
What can we expect from Scotland’s commercial real estate market in 2022?
Looking at the year to come, Covid will remain the biggest driver of change in Scottish real estate. Climate change is having an influence as is ESG, but the pandemic’s impact on daily life is inevitably having an effect on property.
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Insight
The year of ESG, RPI and WFH
ESG, RPI and WFH may in each case just be three little letters, but they are hugely significant concepts that had not been at the forefront of our minds for the past few decades. They are now.
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Insight
We must nurture emerging talent
The petrol crisis last autumn, restaurants’ reducing opening hours and delays to Christmas gift deliveries all highlight the UK’s serious shortage of skilled workers.
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Insight
Boris Johnson may yet survive
And so we bid a none-too-fond farewell to a year of frustration and disappointment for millions across the country.
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Insight
Footing the bill for hybrid working
The past two years have taught us a lesson in productivity: it’s possible (and acceptable) to conduct the nine-to-five from home, in a café, on a train, by the beach… We’ve grown accustomed to working anywhere and everywhere.
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Insight
People are GPA’s greatest asset
For more than a decade, the property industry has been evolving from simply being recognised as places to do work into spaces that facilitate and nurture productivity, connectivity and wellbeing. And we are now seeing property playing its part in people strategies for many employers.
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Online
There’s life yet in the UK’s high street
For many, the death of the British high street has long been a question of when, not if. And with the pandemic causing the proportion of total UK retail sales that take place online to almost double, many thought that Covid-19 would prove to be the final nail in the ...
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Online
The office trends that will shape the 2022 real estate market
The commercial real estate landscape has been shaken up over the past 18 months, with challenges presented for both businesses and landlords alike. However, hybrid working is now fully embedded into our everyday working lives and, as a result, people are starting to understand exactly what they want and need ...
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Insight
Understanding digital tools used by building contractors can benefit the bottom line
We are all aware of the recent surge in digital adoption that is helping to raise building standards.
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Insight
Commercial property landlords must tighten up financial management in 2022
With rents still down on pre-pandemic levels in some subsectors of the commercial property market and the cost of mortgage repayments expected to rise next year due to inflationary increases in interest rates, some landlords may need to tighten up their financial management in the year ahead.
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Insight
Partnerships drive regen projects
Despite years of austerity, the state and public sector is indebted on a grand scale. The hundreds of billions of pounds the government spent to support public services, households and business during the pandemic has caused the government deficit to reach a peacetime record.
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Insight
Warehouse party set to continue
Demand for good warehouse property has never been as high and supply has never been so low. Rental growth has never been stronger and yields have never been lower.
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Insight
BTR has a key role to play in levelling up
We welcomed Michael Gove as the new secretary of state dealing with housing and communities, and now levelling up, even if the new department name, Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, doesn’t trip off the tongue.
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Insight
Airing tricky questions on gender
Last week a male principal at a public sector user of property services publicly admonished an agent for fielding an all-male team when pitching for work.
