MIPIM | Manchester aware of challenges around pace and old offices, leaders say

Manchester was at MIPIM last week to showcase its ambition and bulging pipeline. However, despite recent successes, the pace at which the authority can deliver is still a source of frustration for its chief executive.

Manchester has a reputation for getting things done. A stable, pro-development city council makes the environment for developers a favourable one.

The list of large regeneration projects that have been completed, are underway, or sitting in the pipeline, is the envy of other UK cities.

As a growing city, Manchester has to deliver on all fronts, but limitations around resources make that tricky to do at speed, according to the city council’s chief executive Joanne Roney.

“There is always the challenge of pace. I think that people would often want to see us doing more faster,” she said at an event on the Manchester stand in Cannes.

In a packed room full of private sector property professionals, Roney expressed a degree of sympathy for developers struggling in the current market.

“I think it’s tough out there for some developers around viability assessments,” she said.

“We asked a lot, don’t we? We ask for net zero contributions, we ask for affordable housing, we want public realm.”

Criticisms around the speed of delivery are par for the course, according to outgoing chief executive Eamonn Boylan.

“There’s a real desire out there to move at pace and we’re often accused of not moving fast enough. That’s a criticism we have to take,” he said.

“We try to move as fast as we can and the urgency to get development underway and deliver in a timely fashion is constant and that’s just reality.”

As well as constraints around the speed of delivery, Roney said another challenge facing the city is what to do with its older commercial stock.

The need to retrofit energy-inefficient offices to bring them in line with looming regulations and meet sustainability targets flies in the face of the reality of the situation; that it is not commercially viable to do so.

“The demand for Grade A commercial space is through the roof. But there is still a big challenge around retrofitting existing commercial [buildings] to get them to net zero standards,” Roney said.

“That’s one of the pieces of work that we’re looking at now…where can the financial support come from to help that retrofitting to protect the commercial estate?”

She added: “Reimagining the system and driving forward the city will of course bring with it challenges. It is all part of the joy of the job.”

One potential solution to the problem of an over-supply of secondary and tertiary office stock would be to convert empty commercial buildings into apartments. This would go some way to boosting the supply of much-needed homes, while simultaneously reducing the amount of sub-standard workspace.

However, an Article 4 directive in Manchester that blocks the office-to-resi permitted development right in the city core stands in the way.

“There is demand for residential versus commercial, I’ve got to protect my commercial estate,” Roney said.

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