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The growth of Brooklyn-style local serviced offices

Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak has told Politico that small serviced offices have the potential to cut commute times and allow people to work ‘from home’ without actually being in their own home.

He told the politics site’s Westminster Insider podcast about the rise of neighbourhood serviced offices in Brooklyn in the USA, which are providing that kind of hybrid between being home-based and commuting into the office.

This supports individuals who want to reduce their commute without going fully home-based, and may also have implications for other parts of the economy such as traffic levels and local businesses within the neighbourhood.

Mr Sunak said: “A new thing that’s growing up in New York – actually, this was in Brooklyn – was a new business model of serviced offices, but in neighbourhoods, and very small. So it’s for people who are not doing the commute in, but they don’t wanna work at home when they’re doing their days at home.

“So you can leave your home and do, essentially, working in your neighbourhood rather than making the full commute into work, which is an interesting model to see whether that picks up.”

Will local serviced offices be the new normal?

‘The new normal’ is an often used term to describe what will happen after the Coronavirus pandemic ends, and particularly which of the practices picked up during lockdown will continue for the long term.

Mr Sunak tackled this too, saying: “Is it gonna come back in exactly the same way? Probably not, and actually even small changes have quite big implications, whether it’s for the economics of commuter rail or a coffee shop that’s used to servicing commuters.

“If people work one day a week on average at home and everyone does that, that’s 20% less commuting traffic. That’s not a small impact.”

Again, neighbourhood serviced offices could be the trend that allows this to happen, as businesses set up a number of small branch offices in different parts of the country, with isolated pockets of employees who live within a short distance of each branch.

How the Serviced Office Company can help

We have believed for a long time in the benefits of local serviced offices in key communities in both the north-west and south-east.

Our serviced offices in London are located adjacent to Canary Wharf, putting employees a stone’s throw from the business heart of the capital.

Up north, our serviced offices in Manchester are found on Exchange Quay and Clippers Quay, conveniently located between Manchester city centre and the ever-growing business district of Salford Quays and MediaCityUK.

All are well serviced by road and by public transport, helping to cut commute times for employees who come into the office, whether it’s for one day a week or five.

We believe firmly in the future of this neighbourhood serviced office model, with the flexibility of on-site meeting rooms for interviews and negotiations, when you need a private space to meet with an applicant, customer or stakeholder.

To find out more about how your business can adopt the Brooklyn model, contact us today and we will do our best to answer any questions you might have about our local serviced offices.