Emily Slupek of Bidwells commented: ‘It’s just supply and demand - Cambridge has nothing on the market. So rents are increasing.”
A resident of Oxford, who lived and worked in London for many years, and who now has a brief that covers Cambridge, she felt the planning system struggles to keep pace with the dynamism in the sector.
Emily called for a new approach to unblock delays that affect the development of new science facilities, along with the surrounding envelope of housing and transport:
There’s a feeling in Oxford and Cambridge that some sort of central strategy would make easier ways to get through the planning system. Sometimes it’s about resource issues in planning departments, but projects also just seem to go through this forever commenting process. We don't want planning to be too prescriptive because the ability to have that conversation and put forward a vision is really important. But the process needs to be streamlined. The capital is there, the desire is there, the developers are there. We could see exponential growth if the fundamental blockers are addressed.”
Galvin Tarling of Gleeds put the emphasis on a diverse portfolio of stock, which appeals to a broad spectrum occupiers.
“We need space for major corporates but also stock which supports start-ups and spin-outs that come out of the university, which scale very quickly. Some of the schemes that we're looking at now, which involve extending or redeveloping science parks, the challenge is, ‘how to have those mix of the property types and assets that support the growth of these businesses, but also can accommodate the major corporates that support them as well?”
A great deal of debate is focused on spatial requirements - labs versus write-up space versus collaboration space and amenity space.
We're still going through that transition as to how these sites work beyond supporting individual organisations – and enabling collaboration within any given park or sub-cluster setting. It's a lot more complicated than just designing some lab space and fitting everything else around it. It comes back to providing the adaptability to support different types of science, often unknown at the time the space is being designed.”
The weight of capital wanting to back prime UK innovation was, said Colin Brown of Mission Street, a significant driver.
“Life Science is still a specialist sector but we're seeing large institutions showing very strong appetite. It's relatively easy to get your head around a market where there is a consistent demand, demonstrable over decades. So somewhere like Cambridge the investment thesis is great. Yes, these are fly-or-die high growth companies that probably won’t be in your building for any more than three or five years, either because they’ve outgrown it, or fallen by the wayside. But there is a consistent demand coming from the next wave of start-ups and spin-outs and a consistent turnover in terms of occupiers.”
He reflected on problems around legacy building stock.
What's the supply constraint in Cambridge? It is everything from incubator space, to grow on space, to grow up space. That will hopefully resolve itself in the future. Cambridge does have a legacy of compromised space, which is either ‘make do and mend’ from occupiers, converting office buildings that may or may not be fit for purpose, or space being built in environments and locations which are were fit for purpose for the Life Sciences ecosystem of 20 years ago.”
The culture around innovation businesses has changed. “There was a time when everyone wanted to be behind a barbed wire fence with a secure, insular, inward-focused environment,” said Colin Brown.
“And now occupiers want something completely different and a more urban ecosystem. Ways of working are today collaborative.
There is also a stronger connection to proper communities and other complementary disciplines, such as tech. So, Cambridge and Oxford have to battle with how they can reinvent their offering to address the current and future demands of the occupiers.”
Jon Flin of CB3 Consulting reflected on the risks of repurposing buildings outside of an existing science setting.
“There’s a lot of interest in retail, industrial, and commercial buildings but if you're doing it piecemeal, you're not creating that cluster. Attracting the tenants or their employees would be a challenge."
Emily Slupek picked up the point. “Plain and functional is not where things are going.
You might have the practical elements that make any given building right for refurbishment, but you may end up having to rehash the building to the extent that you might as well demolish it and start again.
The change is seeing scientists as people and understanding that collaboration breeds innovation.”
Jamie Shearman of Morgan Sindall Construction said the need for a ‘wow’ factor should not be overlooked.
Great design is always going to stand out. It’s a fundamental part of the brand and the right environment will help address the core challenge fast scaling companies, regardless of sector, are dealing with – attracting and retaining top talent.”
The developer is transforming an iconic building in central Bristol into one of the largest R&D and innovation hubs in the South-West.
Originally built in 1974 for Bristol United Press, and complete with a printworks, 1 Temple Way has large floor plates and a flexible structure. Colin Brown said the building will have the scale to support the emerging R&D and deep tech ecosystem in Bristol through the provision of wet labs, dry labs and high-specification office space.
*Image from Mission Street website
Office repurposing is difficult and yet it seems the most obvious,” he said. “It’s about identifying the right buildings that have that potential for long life, loose fit. Can they be made to work, uncompromised? We would be reticent to go into any scheme without knowing that we were doing something that would meet the demands of the innovation economy for the next 15-20 years. We have this fantastic building in Bristol that lends itself to labs. We rely heavily on our design teams to make it work. Because it's always much more difficult to refurbish or repurpose than starting from scratch.”
John Steele of Hoare Lea stressed that sustainability is increasingly part of the equation. Funders, developers, and occupiers may well already have ESG credentials but their importance will only grow.
Future-proofing, he said, means “making sure we're doing the right things” now in terms of sustainability and lower carbon.
