The Griffin Report

The Colmore district in the centre of Birmingham represents the heart of the city’s professional sector. Estate agent Nicola Fleet-Milne is chair of the Colmore Business Improvement District and Chamberlink columnist Jon Griffin, spoke to Nicola about how the diverse area of business will fare in the recovery from the Covid-19 lockdowns.

Birmingham city centre’s professional services sector has ‘pivoted’ and adapted to survive the biggest global health emergency for 100 years – clearing the path for a ‘new version' of the 21st Century workplace.

The resilience of some of Birmingham’s most prominent offices in the teeth of the Covid-19 pandemic – from multi-national accountancy firms to solicitors and marketing companies – was revealed by Nicola Fleet-Milne, chair of the Colmore Business Improvement District (BID).

With around 500 organisations employing 35,000 people occupying 5.6 million square feet of office space, Nicola and the rest of the BID team oversee the heart of the city’s professional sector, which generates hundreds of millions of pounds a year for the regional economy.

And the woman whose own £1m turnover estate agency lies at the centre of the district in Colmore Row is full of praise for the efforts of firms, big and small, to battle through more than 12 months of stop-start lockdown.

‘Professional services have had the resources and technology to survive’

The owner of FleetMilne Property gave an upbeat assessment of the future prospects for Birmingham city centre’s best known professional sector – but warned of the impact of workloads on office-bound staff forced to operate remotely over the past year. She told Chamberlink: “Professional services have had the resources and technology to survive. Had this happened 20 years ago, it would have looked very different. Thankfully, the technology has allowed so many people to work remotely.

“In some cases, firms may well have increased their staff numbers because they have had an increase in work. A prime example is the property market which has not slowed, so requests for conveyancing have increased. And sadly, insolvency firms have had more work coming in over the past 12 months.

“Professional firms have pivoted to deliver their services in a different way, to ensure their survival, and in some cases, have thrived.”

Nicola and her team have also run a series of initiatives to help staff across the district cope with the effects of remote working on mental and physical health over the long months of enforced lockdown.

“We delivered Wellbeing Fortnight, focused around physical and mental health needs, which was incredibly popular. People were dialling in for an hour’s yoga, mindfulness, reflection, meditation. We have also had online gym classes with PureGym.

“We then introduced networking every other Thursday evening for a couple of hours. It’s a big Zoom call, you get separated into ‘rooms’ with lots of mingling, and most people turn up with a glass of wine or a cup of coffee in hand.

“At FleetMilne we have learnt that people working from home work incredibly hard. It has been a gratefully received learning curve around trust over the last year. I regularly have 7/8pm meetings, and a day off, what does that mean anymore?

“At FleetMilne I have encouraged proper rest when people are ‘on holiday’ saying ‘when you get your downtime, please use it, get some sun on your face, get some sleep; you are more valuable when you are refreshed and not burnt out.’”

She warned that the new phenomenon of Zoom calls had its drawbacks. “We have used it for our board meetings at the BID but I do still prefer meetings in person; it’s impossible to look directly into someone’s eyes on Zoom.

Transformed: Summer in the Square plans proposed by Colmore BID

‘Every company will be guided by its own internal culture. It will just be the latest version of life’

“I have clients that I want to go to see, I want to chew the cud, be natural with somebody, nurture personal relationships.”

Nicola said the hospitality sector – which comprises eight per cent of the Colmore BID’s levy payers compared to 92 per cent for professional services – had been harder hit by the pandemic but was well positioned to bounce back.

“A lot of people in hospitality have been furloughed. We have had businesses close, we have had new businesses coming in... bars and restaurants have their time and place.”

Meanwhile, companies across the district are gearing up for a longawaited return to a greater degree of normality post-lockdown. “Every company will be guided by its own internal culture. It will just be the latest version of life.

“My team will come back five days a week but there will be a more meaningful flexible-working policy.

“There has got to be a level of trust with your team to say it is OK to work from home just to get the job done. However, if somebody wants to only work remotely, that is unlikely to work for us with our immersive team culture.”

With its members paying levy fees based on 1.5 per cent of their rateable values capped at a maximum of £25,000, around £1.2 million is generated in annual income by the Colmore BID, enabling the organisation to provide security teams and other support.

“We have maintained our security teams out on the streets throughout the pandemic. They liaise with the police and are the eyes of the district, on the ground with the street community, the homeless and rough sleepers.”

Nicola is now looking forward to the end of lockdown and “Summer in the Square” in support of the city’s leisure and hospitality industry, when Victoria Square will be transformed into a new space with socially-distanced seating for 120 people, a bandstand for live music, four beach huts and an array of entertainment.

“I think the hospitality industry is going to be inundated. People are desperate to get out, there will be an enormous demand.”