UK Office Space: Regional Cities Flexible Workspace Providers Directory 2021

This book is a directory of flexible office space companies that operate in regional UK cities and provides their contact details.
The motivation for this project was twofold – firstly, to increase exposure for office space companies that provide flexible workplace solutions to businesses, that have, themselves, been operating under extremely challenging conditions.
And secondly, to improve transparency for the end user.
The flex space market has grown rapidly over the past decade. The range of products has grown exponentially and now includes coworking spaces, serviced offices, bespoke managed office spaces and hybrid solutions. The number of providers has grown significantly and incumbent flex space companies have grown their product ranges and reach, too.
There is now also an increased blurring of lines between conventionally leased office space and serviced workspace options, and there is an increased number of flexibly leased products, sublet offices and assignment opportunities, too.
The increasing number of options can make the market somewhat difficult to navigate and we hope that the production of this directory can go some way in helping to improve transparency.
Flexible workspace has been available for many decades and the Great Recession was a major catalyst for companies of all sizes and from all sectors to start seeking flexibility in their commercial real estate strategies.
Once seen as a solution just for start-ups seeking office space or travelling business people, workspaces provided by widely known office space brands such as Regus and WeWork, increasingly became the workplaces of SMEs and global corporations.
Companies of all sizes became attracted to the all-inclusive nature of the products provided by these and other brands and by the fact that they could rapidly upscale and downscale their occupied footprints in line with changing business conditions.
Changes in the international financial reporting standards in January 2019 were another catalyst for the industry.
IFRS 16 stated that any business liabilities of a term of more than one year, with a net present value above a certain value, would be required to feature on a company balance sheet. Before this, office leases were often reported under operating expenses, however, IFRS 16 required that these were to be reported as amortisation and interest.
This was not seen to be a favourable position for certain companies and they sought more flexible or shorter office space terms to control the impact on their balance sheets.
Companies sought to re-gear their leases to shorter terms, seek out shorter new leases, and also began to seek out other flexible workspace options.
Shared serviced workspaces were not seen as favourable to larger companies and so managed office providers created solutions with bespoke fit-outs and branding, their own front door, dedicated IT and telephony networks and outsourced FM, on shorter terms.
Covid-19 was yet another catalyst – this Black Swan meant that offices could no longer be used and led to the biggest homeworking experiment ever conducted.
Many companies are now looking to utilise a flexible work-from-home workforce more fully into the future.
Businesses are looking to create Hybrid Workplace Models consisting of work-from-home workplaces, work-near-home regional satellite offices, and newly configured headquarter offices.
It is hoped that these models will increase efficiencies, improve employee mental health and well-being, reduce risk – both to business and to health, and have a positive environmental effect due to a reduction in commuting.  
It is predicted that many companies will look to flexible workspace providers as the population transitions back to the workplace.
Flex spaces will be seen as a safe testing bed for trialling new flex working models, they can be used to create a network of satellite offices, and providers can take on the responsibilities of creating Covid-compliant post-pandemic workplaces.