It is hard to predict where the cards will fall around office space. Opinions vary from a draconian shift to home working to a more nuanced adjustment of how office space is used. However, there appears to be a commonly held view, summed up well by McKinsey, that most organisations will ‘boldly question long-held assumptions about how work should be done and the role of the office’. Anyone who has ventured into the City of London during the pandemic will have seen the empty buildings. Yet, professional services firms (lawyers, accountants, banks) have broadly maintained their services with little interruption.

A significant re-imagining of the office could have an impact on the retail and hospitality trade that relies on workers to eat and shop near their office. Add that to the pressure already faced in that space, and it is obvious something will have to give.