Flexible workspace operators are keen to expand in the regions and local authorities are keen to have them as part of a strategy to revive their high streets; but rolling out an identikit offer in every town is not the solution for either.

Will Kinnear is a director at flexible workspace agency HEWN

Many high streets have already fallen victim to a cookie-cutter approach, having been populated with similar retail offers. The appetite for expansion by retailers with the ability to pay high rents meant town centres lost their point of difference. As online retail grew, people had fewer reasons to visit.

On paper, flexible office space ticks many boxes for helping to revive high streets, with the potential to bring empty units back into use and deliver important daytime footfall. Post-Covid working patterns also mean more demand for flexible leases and co-working. However, those same work patterns mean workspace has to compete with the comfort and convenience of working from home, which is to offices what online shopping is to high street retail. There must be a good reason to travel to a town centre.

High-street flexible workspace needs to be attractive and suited to the individual market. This means it needs to fit and support the overall vision and aspirations of a particular town centre. It is not simply a case of taking what worked in Merthyr Tydfil and expecting it to work in Mansfield.

Combining local council and stakeholder knowledge with an operator’s industry expertise is key. Stakeholders are best placed to understand their local markets and the demand drivers. The workspace provided needs to be part of an overall town centre mix, such as coffee shops, cafés and amenities where people want to spend time and money.

The key question for operators is: what is the aspiration for the town centre, and does their flexible workspace offer support and complement that?

Flexible fit: warehouses can often be repurposed as town centre office and co-working space

Stevenage is a good example of how careful curation of workspace in the overall high street offer can work well. There is a substantial investment programme to revitalise and regenerate the town centre with different uses including arts and culture. The local authority worked with flexible workspace operator Co-Space, which took over a former betting shop and adjacent space and created high-quality, design-led serviced offices.

It is a vibrant, flexible offer that sits comfortably in the high street’s new and revitalised profile. Both parties understood what they were trying to get out of the town, and the draw is the workspace and the changing area around it.

Tapping into local needs

Flexible workspace also needs to tap into specific local needs. Is this a casual space for freelancers and small businesses who would otherwise work from home, or about providing small chunks of space for local businesses on flexible terms? The draw might primarily be the space or it could be being part of a community and having the opportunity to network – or a combination of both.

Quirkier buildings unsuited to their traditional uses may help offer something out of the ordinary on the high street. For example, in the historic market town of Stamford, Lincolnshire, investor Haatch has converted an old warehouse into flex space. The building does not immediately shout ‘offices’, but it has allowed the operator to create unconventional workspace and an offer that is as much about networking and community as it is about desks. It is quirky and sits conveniently alongside other local amenities, which adds to its draw.

Any successful policy to revive the high street has to be about careful curation based on local knowledge and property industry expertise, and flexible workspace can play a part in that.

Will Kinnear is a director at flexible workspace agency HEWN