What's interesting about designing today's offices and work spaces is that this part of the property market is finally reacting to the new types of business that have emerged out of the crash.

Sadly, many businesses reacted to the downturn by going bust - but then came a fresh crop of entrepreneurs opening up shop.

The kind of people who started off working from home with all the pros; being surrounded by things that inspire them, having as much control of opening windows and such like as the direction of growth for their business, and the cons of having to make do with less storage space and having work life creep into home life.

The good news is that this generation of businesses is starting to come of age; hitting the three-year mark and looking to grow their premises.

Which is where the current options are either a misfit - corporate 1990s and 2000s offices - or not fit for purpose. Who really wants to hot desk?

What are in demand are flexible, inspiring spaces that support maturing businesses.

Offices with personality, that retain the best bits of the home/office environment, spaces that people want to come and work in, and continue to want to come and work in.

I've found that a professional environment doesn't have to be heartless, feel cold or artificial. We spend approximately one third of our adult working life - that's half of our waking time - there. Our office environment has the potential to be a place of inspiration and productivity, play and work. And looking at the marketplace I see a glut of serviced offices and aging so-called Grade A office space with eco credentials (read expensive) and empty spaces with innovative landlords ready to (wanting to) make deals - which one would you choose?

This article first featured in the Place North West 

Lisa Raynes, founder and managing director, Raynes Architecture, chairman of RIBA NW Solo Practitioners Group

Outreach works in the Manchester Jewish and wider community providing a range of services to adults with a learning difficulty and/or mental health need. It has been providing support since 1977 so has a wealth of experience at meeting need. Outreach runs 10 houses providing residential care. Our support staff assists service users with their everyday and spiritual needs; for example, budgeting, buying and making food, going to shul, personal care, taking medication and attending appointments. We have recently increased our staff base by 12 to provide extra support.

Developments for 2013

• Drop in for service users at the Phoenix Centre (St Mary’s Park Prestwich Tuesdays 10-2pm Contact Lisa Ogden on 07594140631)
• ‘Changing Rooms’ project to refurbish an Outreach house (contact Lisa Raynes 07989 744 336)

How can you help

• Donate Money (via our funky yellow Tzedaka box or supply goods or services for the renovation)
• Donate Time (volunteer for the drop in centre or Shul escorting)
• Donate Clothes (we’ll exchange them for cash)

For more information visit www.outreach.co.uk or contact Chief Executive Akilah Akinola email [email protected] or telephone 0161 740 3456

On the BBC Breakfast programme last Tuesday morning Linda Wright was asked  

‘Why are developers continuing to build in flood plains?’

The fact is that developers will only build where they have had planning permission and will only be allowed to build on an actual ‘floodplain’ in exceptional circumstances but may build in other areas that are at moderate to high risk of flooding where specific measures must be put in place to mitigate flooding.

Government planning policies specifically steer new development to areas with the lowest probability of flooding. 

There is nothing wrong with building in an area ‘at risk of flooding’. However it is critical that the risk of flooding is acknowledged, the development is designed and built appropriately to cope with flood waters and adequate mitigation measures or defences are put in place. Even where defences already exist there is always a possibility that they will fail or be overtopped by severe floods.

In reality if we didn’t build in flood plains half of London wouldn’t exist and we would be waving goodbye to Canary Wharf. It is about balancing the risk. The Thames Barrier was put in place to protect development from a 1 in 1000 year flood – but it has in fact been used more frequently than was originally anticipated.

Historically, the pattern of development has been around rivers and on the coast - towns and city centres have large areas that are likely to flood such as Leeds, Sheffield and York. If we refuse to build on such areas we will sterilise approximately 15% of the land mass. And what is the solution then? Build on the Green Belt?

Over the last few years the UK has been experiencing a very wet period – the 1980’s were very dry now we have sustained bursts of heavy rain that saturates the ground often causing severe local flooding, particularly in urban areas with high-density development and under capacity of drainage.

This is not to suggest that ‘Eureka’ development should be promoted – which solves any flooding in the immediate area but worsens conditions elsewhere – that is not the solution and planning policy guards against this.

Flooding has a devastating effect on people’s lives and communities. This must be acknowledged and prevented. The design of housing needs to be much more innovative in order to cope with the possibility of flooding whilst inflicting the least damage.

The solution must be to all work together, Government, policy makers, the Environment Agency, Local Planning Authorities and developers to minimise the risk of flooding in developments and ensure appropriate defences are located in the most vulnerable places. 

The Government has announced recently £120 million in new funding will speed up the delivery of 50 flood defences that could protect up to 60,000 homes and deliver up to £1 billion of economic benefits – on top of £2 billion already set aside for flood and coastal erosion.

The best advice - if you are buying a house – have a look at the Environment Agency’s website and find out if the area is liable to flood. It must be stressed this is not definitive as the website needs to be frequently updated – but it is a good guide. However, if you are looking at a house on ‘Watery Lane’ or ‘Riverside’ there may be a very good reason for the address – use your common sense!

Linda Wright MBA DipTP MRTPI

Town Planning Consultancy & Development Services

M: 07765 250150
E:  [email protected]
W: www.planitwright.co.uk

Paul Barnes from The Accountancy People has given his view on the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement and how it affects the property market………

Construction has taken the brunt of the downturn with the withdrawal of bank and private finance for large projects after 2008 and the reduction in government investment since 2010.  We can be relieved that stamp duty is staying the same and there will be no additional taxes on more expensive homes.  The Chancellor announced that spending on capital projects will now increase a little which should help.  We have a stable, if much reduced, platform to build on, but further grow is likely to be slow.

One little publicised nugget is the reduced rate of Corporation tax, a further 1% reduction on the main rate was announced, not much you may think.  But the main rate of Corporation Tax has now been reduced from 28% to 21% in three years – which in a way is quite radical.  I’d be surprised if this did not go down to 20% next year – who knows maybe lower still.  This is very competitive compared to our other countries and we may soon reach a tipping point where the UK is seen as a low tax area for companies.  New companies setting up in the UK would certainly have a positive impact on UK property.

A New Spring for property?  A step forward, maybe, but it will remain a tough market.

If you would like to discuss your tax affairs with Paul, give him a call on 0161 947 9207 or visit 
www.TheAccountancyPeople.co.uk

Residents and staff of Outreach, the learning disability and mental health charity, turned out in full force to welcome past Outreach worker Ivan Lewis MP to their AGM last week at the Maccabi Sports and Social Club.

2012 has brought some well-deserved recognition for Outreach Community & Residential Services staff with the receipt of two awards.  Level 1 PQASSO (Practical Quality Award System for Smaller Organisations) focuses on the overall quality of the care and support given to service users and the Dignity in Care Award recognises and commends the level of attention individual members of staff put into frontline health and social care.

Ivan Lewis MP said:

“I first become involved with Outreach as a volunteer when I was 14 years old and this initial involvement had led to me becoming involved in politics.  I had been introduced to Outreach by my mother, who was herself committed to the organisation and joining Outreach changed my life.

“During the 1980s and 1990s Outreach had the revolutionary belief that everyone should be treated as an individual.  This attitude was ahead of any other organisation (especially regionally) and Outreach has continued to maintain this ethos and been ahead of other organisations in terms of its values and the way it continues to recognise and identify the needs of the service user, ensuring their dreams are met and that they attain their full potential. 

“Everyone is interdependent, not independent and through the way Outreach provides support, people have been able to have relationships and lead fulfilled lives without becoming lonely and isolated.”

Akilah Akinola, Outreach Chief Executive, said:

“Outreach has always been a very progressive organisation. The future of Outreach is looking bright, the quality of staff is improving and as a result, the quality of the services provided is always  getting better “The plans for the future include looking at new offices, improving the environment of the houses and improving awareness of Outreach in the community as well as recruiting  additional staff in order to deliver more domiciliary services within the community and increase opportunities  for people with a learning disability and/or mental health need to access community , social and leisure facilities.”

Ivan Lewis MP then went on to award staff or service users who deserved special recognition:

o        Tony Simmons
Akilah explained that Tony was a service user who had done a lot of fundraising for Outreach and through his commitment and effort had raised a lot of money.  She also thanked him for all his hard work and efforts.

o        Helen Openshaw, Tony Beaney and Lisa Ogden
Akilah explained that these three members of staff had worked hard in delivering and  planning   activities with the leisure group and and at the Drop in centre.  It was through their efforts that everything in this area was so successful.

o        Beverley Shaw
Akilah reminded everyone there had been a lot of management changes and during that time Bev had been quietly working in the background and been extremely flexible in everything she did and supported her fellow managers through the changes.  Akilah therefore wanted to thank Beverley for all her efforts.

o        Elaine Carter
Akilah explained that within Outreach, service users had been involved in the recruitment of staff and taken part in interviews for a long time.  She named all the service users involved and added that one person in particular had worked very hard, had always been willing to step in at the last minute and provided an excellent example for others to follow.  That person was Elaine, who sadly was unavailable at the AGM to accept her certificate in person, it would therefore be taken back to her house and presented to Elaine there.