WORKHUBS CONFERENCE: Kerslake backs shift to homeworking

Speaking at the Workhub Network’s inaugural conference last month, Sir Robert Kerslake backed homeworking. 'This is taking forward an agenda whose time has come. It is absolutely relevant to the changing economy that we are now seeing. We know that many more people are choosing to work from home. If we are to see a recovery of the economy, it will have to come from small and medium businesses.

'This is why we have made workhubs part of the single conversation,' he said, referring to the HCA’s mechanism for referring to the HCA’s process for determining local housing and regeneration investment with councils. But he acknowledged that public investment was becoming harder to access. He urged developers of workhub projects to get involved in the forward planning process.  

'If you can get this idea embedded in projects at an early stage you can achieve it without putting a lot of money in. If you can get local authorities to think about this at an early stage, you are more likely to succeed in the future.'

Speaking later at the same conference, the managing director of Creative Space Management Toby Hyam challenged the commercial property industry to take a more flexible approach to lease terms. He said that the extremely flexible nature of leases on offer at some workhubs were more akin to the business model used by mobile phone providers and health clubs.

Jonathan Robinson, founder of the international Hub chain, argued that workhubs could make more money per square metre than traditional workspace because space is used more intensively and flexibly.

Sarah Shafi told delegates of her experience running a specialist leather designer accessories company Rude Ltd as a workhub user. She explained how she had used Leeds Round Foundry both as a regular office tenant and a home-based member during the recent economic turbulence.

Gavin Eddy of Forward Space in Somerset described how he had set up a chain of rural market town workhubs in the south west, with a mix of daily and occasional users paying from a menu of charges to suit their needs.

He was joined  by a wide range of expert workhub operators who formed a specialist panel at the event. These included John Logan of York Hub (second left), Fay Easton of Enterprise HQ Ironbridge (centre) and Ian Elwick of the Werks chain in Sussex (right).

The event was attended by over 120 delegates from across the UK. One of the coutcomes was a decision to launch a national Workhubs Network to promote thius type of workspace and to help home-based users and others access workhub facilities. As Director Tim Dwelly put it: 'We are seeing the beginning of a new sector here - the next generation of workspace to fit the low carbon economy.'

Visit the Workhubs Network.