It takes just a five-minute walk from Castle Street to St Paul’s Square to see the dramatic extent to which many Liverpool firms have switched operations in the wake of the coronavirus.
Compared with this month last year, it would now be a push to describe between 8am and 9am as a “rush hour”, with the previous hordes of cyclists and train and bus users now resembling more of a trickle.
Like most major UK cities, the pandemic has forced Liverpool companies, previously occupying hundreds of thousands of square feet of office space, to completely rethink how they work. Because even in that short period post-first wave and pre-second wave when the Government was encouraging companies back to offices, commercial districts like Liverpool's were still eerily quiet.
Despite a vaccine believed to be around the corner, it’s widely thought that the pandemic will have shed light on an alternative way for companies to operate.
It’s believed that could mean, for some, dropping the previous attraction to huge Grade A office spaces, and instead adapting to a more ‘hybrid’ approach for staff.
So what will this mean for Liverpool’s office district, and how might this area, crucial to city businesses, adapt and change over the next decade?
At an event titled ‘Liverpool - Creating a Dynamic City Region’ which featured in the virtual Real Estate Live event this week, BusinessLive put the question to a host of experts.
Stephen Cowperthwaite, principal and managing director at Avison Young Liverpool, said many businesses had begun taking strategic reviews of their estates - “both in terms of the size of their accommodation and where they are located”. But he said it was vital firms continue to place emphasis on collaboration and coming together.
He said: “We are seeing a flight to quality and flexible accommodation - but within that, you need to address the health and wellbeing issues.
“I think at the start of lockdown, when everybody first started working from home, the novelty made it okay, and the pleasant days and evenings we had as well [weather wise].
“But I think from a mental health perspective, long-term working from home isn't a solution.
“What we are seeing is [businesses] moving towards a hybrid model where you would still have quality office accommodation, where your employees can come together and collaborate and therefore you need good space within your building.
“It then comes back down to the old adage of ‘location, location, location’. So that's your first one, but also the quality of your building.”
Also on the panel was John Cummins, managing director, future cities of Legal & General.
Mr Cummins said the new normal - particularly for Liverpool - would see an emphasis on “bringing different business communities together”.
He said: ”There will be flexibility in the spaces and there will also be an ability to repurpose quickly if required.
“What Covid has done in terms of a crisis is [that firms] really understand that you can run a bank from home, you can run many, many companies that way.
“But we are still tribal, we still need to come together - and it's that meeting place with that hybrid functionality and the flexibility from landlords and creating ecosystems to really support SMEs on a journey to scale.
“Liverpool has got some great businesses but it needs to scale up, say compared to Manchester, and that ecosystem support - which will support that flexibility.”
Claire Slinger, assistant director for regeneration at Liverpool Council, said while there will be a shift, the city’s office environment “has not left us at all”.
She said: “In terms of full-time working from home, we are going to see a moderate increase. In terms of part-time working from home, and that flexibility, I think that will increase substantially - but I don't think the office environment and the hub of the city centre has left us at all.
“I think what we really need to think about is the impact on skills. More seasoned employees like myself probably won't be as affected as some of the more junior members of the team in terms of mentoring and training, face-to-face meetings and socialising, which comes from working in the city centre.
“I think what we need to do is create the transportation to enable people to get in and out quickly and beneficially - and to ensure our green agenda is prioritised as well as bringing people back into our city centres to create that footfall."
Speaking about what may be the most important factor when businesses are choosing office space in the future, Mr Cowperthwaite said: “I would love to have a crystal ball to say what things will look like but we are already seeing in the city with the Spine in Paddington Village [the soon-to-be home of the Royal College of Physicians], which is among the four healthiest buildings in the world, that greening of space is massively important as well.
“It's that flexibility in the office accommodation and internally, the quality of the office accommodation to enable people to work flexibly.
“The city has been incredibly resilient over many many years. You go back to when it relied upon industrialization and was a major shipping port and everything associated with that. The city has always changed and adapted, and I’m pretty certain it will still be a cool place to live.”
