This Sector Resilience research examines and compares the exposure to risk for key business sectors, and the impact this risk will have on their decision-making process in relation to office space take-up in the UK regions.
We weigh the exposure to sector risk in each of the UK’s largest regional cities to create a ranking, the UK Regional Risk Index.
The research analyses the following industries:
Financial Services, Manufacturing & Energy, Professional Services, Flexible Workspace, Media, Insurance, Public Sector, Legal, Tech
Key findings
- Office-using businesses are facing increasing risk from Brexit and COVID-19 related uncertainty
- There are a number of key business sectors that are less exposed to risk, or in other words, more resilient than others.
- UK cities with less exposure to the riskier sectors may experience an earlier and stronger return of occupier demand post-COVID while those with increased exposure may take longer to return to pre-COVID levels.
- Cities with dominant low-risk business sectors in the take-up profile could see a relatively early return of occupier demand.
What are the business risks to the UK’s largest regional office markets?
Cushman & Wakefield identifies the current four risks prevalent across all office markets as:
- Competition - The sensitivity to competition from disruptors, innovation, online rivals or overseas businesses.
- Location - Sensitivity to cost-saving pressures of moving outside traditional geographic locations, either within the UK or to an overseas location. Brexit is a key example of this, as is the impact of working from home policies in response to the pandemic.
- Regulation - Sensitivity to revenue loss from regulation and compliance challenges, either from within the UK or from overseas. Again, Brexit is a key example of this, impacting certain sectors more than others, such as Financial.
- Economic - Sensitivity to changes in economic growth, either from normal cycle movements, or from other phenomena (e.g. COVID-19).
Read the report to find out how each regional UK city and sector scored, and which we found were the most resilient.
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