Issue - meetings

Jeff East, Acorn Commercial and Martin Pinnell, LBB Head of Town Centre Management and Business Support

Mike Lewis of Michael Rogers LLP gave an update on the commercial property market in the Borough.  Demand for commercial property had recently increased, however the majority of offices in Bromley tended to be of older stock and space was fragmented with no capacity to accommodate larger businesses.  The Chairman agreed that the quality of space available was important in attracting businesses to the Borough, however Bromley had a number of other advantages including its excellent transport links and close proximity to London.

Peter Pledger, representing South London Business, highlighted the need to consider how to accommodate the changing requirements for office space in the Borough, including the need to meet higher demand from SME businesses.  The Head of Town Centre Management and Business Support confirmed that a half-day commercial property workshop was currently being developed to promote the benefits of locating in Bromley to both major occupiers and SME businesses.

Mike Lewis, Michael Rogers LLP and Jeff East, Acorn Commercial

Jeff East of Acorn was not able to attend the meeting, but had sent in some comments. He reported that 2011 had been better than 2010 for his business, although the same challenges continued to affect the market. Funding was in short supply, with cash more important and loan to value ratios greatly reduced.  There was strong interest in commercial property investments. The summer was expected to be fairly quiet with the Olympics and the usual holiday period. 

Mike Lewis confirmed that although market conditions were tough, there was still some activity. The availability rate for offices in Bromley had recently dropped to about 5% (having been 10% in recent years.) He felt that there was a lack of good quality modern office space in Bromley, with nothing available for letting having been built since 1989, and the market was therefore fairly stale. It was suggested that part of the reason for this was a lack of infrastructure and poor transport links at Bromley North and this was echoed by Philip Lapper. Marc Hume commented that with TfL identifying that the Jubilee Line between London Bridge and Canary Wharf was nearing capacity, there was a strong case for providing direct links to Canary Wharf.  There already existed the potential to market the Bromley South area as an important cluster for banking/finance/insurance. 

The Chairman also raised the issue of developing high tech/business park provision at Biggin Hill. Transport links were critical for this type of activity, and accommodation needed to be high quality.