Shrinking Space. Going Nowhere.

In England at the last count( 2019 ) there were 24.4 million dwelling homes. The average size of an English dwelling is shrinking but on average a dwelling is 85m2 or to be circa and to speak English about 1,000 square feet. In total and hopefully Ive got my noughts right about 24.4 billion square feet of space with an average 5.8 rooms in each dwelling. Now mid pandemic everyone or it seems nearly everyone are working from home. Assume a generous spouse and loving children there could be hope to secure one room in the dwelling for office working purpose. OK, we agree that’s 3.6 billion square feet of recently created office space.

Compare that to the approximate total purpose built office space in England circa 360 million square foot of space than 10 times more space has suddenly been made available to Brexit Britain through one virus in one cruel blow.’ Never has been so much space been created for so many by so little’ ( no not Winston Churchill quote, just me ). The reality is that only 17% of the workforce has gone back to the office and the Government are now worried they will never go back. TFL ( Transport for London ) are also worried and they are considering subsidised fares to get those bums on seats and back to those office desks. More worrying ( especially for the Commercial Property owners ) is that Corporations are waking up to the fact that they may not need the space. Google have postponed a move to their new London HQ for 2 years and Barclays along with other Banks are thinking twice and even considering office sharing some of their branches ( open for Robbery ), or at least the risk of it. Add to that the costs savings for Corporations when the staff are funding the overhead cost then working from home could be a winner, greater Corporate profit and a higher share price. Win win for everyone then ? Certainly not as the Local Authorities will collapse from the loss of business rates income, the Landlords rent rolls would roll off the cliff and all those service charges unexpended would affect climate change as this air conditioning systems lay idle. Think also of the knock on effect of this upon the Cities and before long we could begin to see Ghost Cities akin to some dystopian movie.

Meantime for some the daily commute is a missing habitual part of the day. Add to that the mixing socially with their colleagues and the missing groan and gossip about their work place then, some miss the office environment. Spouses also miss being rid of the other half for a few hours each day and ‘ what are you doing now ? ‘ becomes the most asked question of the week. The Children aren’t happy with all this as those millennials still living at home are seeing an excessive amount of their parents and though blood is thicker than water blood still spills on occasion. The problem of course is that if we as a nation do become more efficient in green and economic terms the Fourth Industrial Revolution will prove with the help of that virus a massive change in all our lives. The streets will be made clearer for all those Electric Vehicles or will we still need Public Transportation and to go nowhere will become a way of life. As for the shops by the amount of cardboard in my house, shopping days are over and I heard last week that on Oxford Street London ( perhaps the busiest shopping street on the planet ) there are over 50 units available to lease. Ive never seen that before and Amazon at the same time are looking for more and more space especially as they seek to solve that big problem ‘ last mile delivery ‘

The fact is home sizes are shrinking, office space demand shrinking , shops are shrinking and the English man’s home His Castle changing so much he’s unlikely to ever leave it again…… heh isn’t that place called Prison ? All of this will have a psychological affect of course at some point and this is why mental illness is on the increase and healthcare that is affordable and available to be one of the biggest issues to solve as we move into the third decade of the 21st Century. The £10 per person UK Government food subsidy to eat out finishes today so expect to see more restaurant closures now and for those places that asked you to don the mask before entering may have gone out of business already as eating with a mask on is still something I’ve not worked out how to do.