The Mayor of London’s new London Plan is giving greater significance to the importance of affordable workspaces and the need to provide for it in the planning process.

The plan defines an affordable workspace as one where rents are maintained below the market rate for a specific social, cultural, or economic development purpose. While well intended, in the past these policies may have inadvertently meant that even less supply comes forward, as the requirements depress office scheme values, further reducing viability when competing with residential proposals. Often affordable workspace operators can’t afford to take on space in new buildings, even with reduced rents.

This report undertaken by Savills seeks to answer some of the following questions: could adding affordable workspace to mixed-use schemes add value? Would re-use of the buildings that are already in the right places be a greener, better way to go? Should Local Authorities play a more proactive role, either by buying assets outright or entering into long leases to gain control of pricing and the building’s social and economic outputs?

This report undertaken by Savills seeks to answer some of the following questions: could adding affordable workspace to mixed-use schemes add value? Would re-use of the buildings that are already in the right places be a greener, better way to go? Should Local Authorities play a more proactive role, either by buying assets outright or entering into long leases to gain control of pricing and the building’s social and economic outputs?