News & views

26 June 2019

Leicestershire Business Voice (LBV) hosted its latest Lunchtime Meetup business event on Friday 21 June. The event was hosted by Mattioli Woods, one of the UK's leading providers of wealth management and employee benefit services, at its new offices in Leicester city centre.

By hosting the event at Mattioli Woods, guests could see first-hand the positive impact of a quality office development, not only on its employees but also on the regeneration of the city centre.

With a series of high quality speakers, LBV members and assembled guests learned more about how quality office accommodation is key to the success of the Leicester business community.

Adrian Ceney from Pick Everard (and an LBV board member) introduced the proceedings and Ian Mattioli MBE from Mattioli Woods provided an insight into the company’s major investment in Leicester city. Ian ran through the history of the company, from humble beginnings in a home garage up to the multi-location firm it is today.

James Phillips from APB Property Consultants then discussed current trends and occupiers’ requirements including the disconnect between rental rates and build costs, the need for more speculative development, the appeal of the serviced office sector, and the issues around transportation and car parking in the city.

David Beale from Leicester City Council finished up by discussing the challenges that Leicester’s office market faces and what might be done to address the scarcity of good quality accommodation. David mentioned that the city is losing office space to residential, rather than gaining it.

Some of the suggestions around what can be done focused on housing-centric planning, direct delivery, gap funding, commissioning and lease underwriting.

In conclusion, LBV believes that it can help to progress the opportunities for the local economy presented by additional office space by working collaboratively with partner organisations such as the City Council and the Leicester and Leicestershire Enterprise Partnership (LLEP), as part of the city’s Industrial Strategy, to prioritise the issue of identifying and making available suitable office space in the city.