Liverpool Question Time: looking to the next level

Liverpool should be “driving and striving” to reach its full potential as it moves into a “different phase” of development, according to the chief executive of the body that brings together local authorities from the city and its surrounding region. Opening EG’s Question Time Liverpool at the city’s Everyman Cinema, Frank Rogers rattled off a raft of statistics to show the growth of the region – 50,000 new jobs in the city region since 2010, 11,000 new businesses launched, and a 10-year high for office take-up in the city centre last year. “Dependent upon which stats you look at, Liverpool is either the, or one of the, fastest growing UK cities outside of London,” Rogers said in his speech. “But critically, we do have to recognise that we’re coming from a low base, and whilst the potential is huge there is an awful lot that we have still got to do and there is no scope for resting on our laurels.” Rogers went on: “It was said historically that the city region and the city was punching above its weight. I think we need to reshape that, and we need to be driving and striving to reach our potential, because we can be so much better than we currently are. We’re in a good place at the moment, it’s how we move it to that different level.” HS2 and beyond Infrastructure led the agenda for the following panel discussion, with the very first question from the audience asking just how concerned the city should be if HS2 were to be scrapped. Although panellists seemed confident that would not be the case, Bill Addy, chief executive of the Liverpool BID Company, said the city should “absolutely” be worried if the project did not happen. “It’s not just about the speed to London and the fact we can get down to London far quicker – we’ve got a reasonable service to London at the moment. It’s about that increased capacity,” Addy said. “Peel [Ports] have invested £1bn in [container port] Liverpool2, connecting the west coast of the UK with the rest of the world, with the United States, with the Americas. So it’s important that that increased capacity is there. HS2 coming to Liverpool would also be a sign of connecting Liverpool across west to east as well, which is vital for us as a city region.” Others were quick to note, however, that HS2 is not the be all and end all of the region’s infrastructure needs. Sue Patterson, head of business growth for the Liverpool city region at construction group Morgan Sindall (pictured), warned that the high-profile nature of the high speed line should not draw attention away from more localised and arguably pressing issues for the city. “While HS2 is important, I see the west to east coast transportation as more important to us as a northern business – getting those links right, getting people moving around, getting freight moving around quicker with Liverpool2 coming into use,” Patterson added. “Our roads are already rammed enough – the M62 is a car park at the moment. That, for me, is more important than the links with London.” As and Bs More firmly on a property footing, panellists tackled the issue of Liverpool’s office supply – or, as some were concerned, lack of it. Stephen Cowperthwaite, principal and managing director for Liverpool at agency Avison Young, highlighted BT’s requirement for a new Liverpool office and the three contenders in the Pall Mall, Paddington Village and Liverpool Waters developments as proof that larger companies are serious about making a home in the city. “We’re in a far better position than we were in terms of [having] that offer and that choice for those kinds of occupiers,” Cowperthwaite added. “Would we like to see more grade-A come forward? Yes. I think we’re at the stage where the supply of office accommodation is very, very limited and there are those occupiers out there with requirements.” Rogers called on the city to give developers and investors more reason to strike ahead with large projects. “One of the things in relation to grade-A is confidence in the city, confidence in the city region,” Rogers said. “One of the things investors need is surety, a clear understanding that they will be able to develop their initiatives into delivered projects. And I think we’ve been too reticent as a city region to give that confidence and to enable investors to take that plunge.” If more grade-A space is developed, Rogers argued, then “supply in a lot of instances will generate the demand”. “We need to make sure we can compete and provide the quality of office space to attract people into our city region,” he added. “The availability of quality office space isn’t what it needs to be to support the growth we should be looking to deliver.” In the meantime, grade-B space can be refurbished and redeveloped to meet new needs from occupiers, said Helen Brown, real estate partner at law firm Brabners. “Flexibility has got to be the answer,” Brown said. “It’s making sure the space we’ve got is actually useful to the people who need to use it. Some landlords are bringing down the requirements they have for tenants to sign up to leases – the terms are being brought down, the rents are being changed and the incentives are there to match up with the flexible services office accommodation that’s available.” [gallery type="slideshow" link="none" size="full" ids="1008138,1008139,1008140,1008143,1008142,1008141,1008145,1008147,1008151,1008150,1008149,1008152,1008148,1008146,1008144"] Greener and cleaner As new buildings are developed, how should the city’s offices and other properties be designed? The issues of sustainability and impact on residents’ wellbeing were front of mind for panellists, as for so many others in the industry. Patterson pointed to Morgan Sindall’s work on The Spine, a new office building in the city’s Paddington Village that will be home to tenants including the Royal College of Physicians. Designed around a striking staircase that will encourage occupiers to walk around the building, The Spine will have an internal sky garden with high-oxygen producing plants. “It’s a whole different way of designing buildings that needs to be considered now,” Patterson said. “Even in our own business, we look at mindfulness. People are all about being healthy – we all want to live longer, we want to be more active, and we spend most of our lives in work, so the fact we’re looking at designing buildings that will give us that, I think that’s a way forward.” At Kier Property, development manager Henry Martin said the firm’s work on the mixed-use Pall Mall extension of the city’s core business district had given it a “unique opportunity” to promote wellbeing through the use of open space alongside the 500,000 sq ft of new commercial space. “It’s something we focused on in the design – to really look at the placemaking, the asset of the public realm and the green space, putting trees in there, encouraging biodiversity,” Martin said. “We want that to be a focal point of the development, for the tenants of the buildings and the residents who live nearby, and for it to be a community asset for the wider central business district to use.” Talent and how to keep it Getting the right buildings in the right scale will be crucial if Liverpool is to hold on to talent. As Brabners’ Brown put it, the challenge is “getting the offices here to allow the businesses to grow and to keep people here”. Kier’s Martin described the talent pool in Liverpool as “fantastic”, and added that he believes the 70,000 or so students in the city now would want to remain after graduation. But do enough of them do so? “I don’t think so,” Martin said. “Part of that is to do with attracting more occupiers… Liverpool to a certain extent has been overlooked by those companies jumping to Manchester with the amount of grade-A space that they have there…. It’s almost about resetting the market…” For Rogers, the issue of talent retention touches on many of the challenges Liverpool now faces. “It’s a holistic issue,” he said. “It’s not just office space – it’s opportunity, it’s culture, it’s lifestyle, it’s housing availability. It’s the big picture, but wrapped around that big picture is the opportunity to meet your potential. That’s one of the challenges we’ve had historically as a city region – there hasn’t been sufficient opportunity for talented individuals to meet their potential in the city region, so they’ve moved somewhere else. We’re moving into a different space now.” Rogers pointed to a recent study the combined authority carried out, gauging the views of people in 250 businesses based in London and Manchester on Liverpool. The starkest dividing line, he said, was age – people younger than 35 appeared to have no negative perceptions of Liverpool. Those older than 35 were far more likely to be “still stuck in the stereotypical views of the ‘80s in respect of the city region”. “Our challenge is it’s some of those people who are making  the investment decisions,” Rogers said. “We need to get into that space and change people’s perception of our city region, because categorically we are changing.” Photographs by James White The panel Bill Addy, chief executive, Liverpool BID Company Helen Brown, real estate partner, Brabners Stephen Cowperthwaite, principal, managing director – Liverpool, Avison Young Henry Martin, development manager, Kier Property Sue Patterson, head of business growth (Liverpool City Region), Morgan Sindall Frank Rogers, chief executive, Liverpool City Region Combined Authority (Keynote) Chair: Damian Wild, editor-in-chief, EG To send feedback, e-mail tim.burke@egi.co.uk or tweet @_tim_burke or @estatesgazette