Page 37 - Yearbook 2020

RAY MORGAN
Chief Executive, Woking Borough Council
“For Local Authorities, 2020 was undoubtedly dominated by the ght against COVID-19. However, we faced many challenges pre- Covid and they have not gone away. In my opinion, the overall economic position is the greatest challenge we faced in 2020.
Markets have always gone through periods of oversupply followed by periods of rebalance. You’ve always had the rise and fall of retailers, over debt burden and over expanded, followed by market corrections. However, the normal market trend to rebalance has been complicated by COVID-19. You might usually expect to see new businesses emerging from the ashes of old ones. I think people will be more reluctant to risk that too quickly and, as a result, we will see some continued shrinkage across a range of sectors in 2021.
The danger is to blame it all on the pandemic, but I think that just explains the weaknesses that existed prior to its arrival. Our towns, our highstreets have been vulnerable for a long time and their sustainability was already questionable before the pandemic. People are getting what they need in different ways, particularly with the rise of online shopping. Now more than ever, highstreets need to be more than just a row of shops and instead offer something experience-based. Hospitality plays a key role in offering this and enlivening town centres, however many restaurant chains are debt-laden and suffering from the effects of lockdown closures.
So, looking forward, we need to identify what sectors will recover and at what rate. One approach is to diversify our estates and our towns quickly to ll empty spaces. The danger of diversifying too fast, however, is that you actually destroy the recovery of the traditional retail sector. This is something all local authorities will be grappling with.
At Woking Borough Council, we have a rather signi cant build program all geared around putting people back into the town centre. We will be focusing on creating opportunities for new businesses. I think there will be a shift towards sole traders, for example. We are also discussing the relocation of medical services and personal care into town centres. Another thing is thinking about parking strategies to accommodate click and collect.
Aside from the commercial world, COVID-19 highlighted a huge variety of social issues. One which I think we, as a society, are simply not equipped to deal with is isolation in young people. We must be thinking how we can give young people hope in this climate. For the real estate world, this might mean looking at how we shape future leases or future acquisitions to account for greater exibility much like the French and German models.
I expect 2021 to be dif cult. Simply because I don’t think we have seen the bottom.”
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