EMERGING LONDON 2018

13 12 CUSHMAN & WAKEFIELD  | EMERGING LONDON KEYNOTE | C&W MARKET VIEW What role do London’s largest landowners and developers play in realising London’s growth capability? A very significant one. Increasingly large swathes of developable land are held in single private ownerships. These are the bedrock of London’s future evolution. Our best developers will regard these as 100 year-plus plays, as the great estates have done historically, rather than as trading opportunities. This requires skills in placemaking, a long-term view on investment returns, and a form of paternalism and conscientious capitalism that doesn’t exist ubiquitously in the property industry. What is the most exciting technological change or innovation you have come across recently? The most profound tech change going forward is going to be digital automation. I’m not sure whether I’m excited or terrified about it, but I don’t think that most people have realised how societally impactful it is likely to be. Conventional wisdom tells us that when technological processes (such as ICT in the workplace) are introduced, then people transition over time to higher value roles. However, this time around, there will be some in society who won’t be able to find any job that can’t be done quicker and cheaper by a robot. We need to work out how to deal with that. London is a truly global city. What are the attributes that make London so attractive to those from other countries and cultures, and are there any global cities which you believe offer key learnings for London? London is attractive because it is: open, transparent, investable, secure, vibrant, diverse and exciting (well, you did ask!). London may reflect on how Tokyo effortlessly manages paradoxes between the traditional and the new, yet is also crazy, fun and innovative. Transportation is a key attribute for any city. How important is the development of London’s transport network? Every time we build a tube line, we leave less space for the next one. We probably need to look at building more capacity into the network as a priority, rather than add new lines, particularly as the city densifies. The real issue with infrastructure delivery in London is that it takes far too long. We need to streamline processes, give more planning and purchase powers to TfL and find new ways to capture value from property development to support business cases. The latest forecasts from the GLA suggest London’s population is forecast to grow annually by over 80,000 people over the next decade. How should London respond? It has to increase in density, which will not be universally popular. If you look to Asia however, London is still a very low-density city. How are attitudes to work/life balance likely to affect London’s physical environment? I envisage a bifurcation in how work is delivered, with mundane or solitary tasks being increasingly delivered at home, and interactive or knowledge-based tasks delivered centrally in flexible spaces that bring together work, leisure and communication. Digitally arranged communities that tie together RICHARD PICKERING HEAD OF FUTURES STRATEGY How do you describe your role, in a nutshell? It involves looking ahead at how the world and our industry is changing, figuring out what this means for our clients and helping them with their strategy, and then making sure that our own business is well placed for the future. You originally trained in law and are now working in the real estate sector. What drew you in that direction? I think that a law degree is great preparation for any career – it encourages focus and critical thinking. I went into commercial property law, but ultimately found the guys on the other side of the table to be having more fun. Macroeconomic factors such as Brexit and London’s housing crisis are often framed in a negative way. Are we conditioned to see big picture items as threats (because they are outside our control) when we should be seeing the opportunities which lay within? Yes, we do tend to focus on the prospect of loss, rather than the opportunity of gain. This has its roots in behavioural economics. If you look back, the investors who have been most successful tend to be counter- cyclical ones, who better perceive the upside opportunities associated with risk. How do you expect London and the way people live and interact with the city, to change over the next decade? Data sets are becoming larger and more open. Consequently, we should expect new analytical tools to allow us to use our resources in a more efficient way (for instance to manage congestion, to share capital assets and also to create communities and interact with each other). people with similar interests can in turn coordinate physical interaction between people who may otherwise not meet. I’m quite hopeful for the future in this regard. Is London doing enough to prepare itself for the impact technological advances will have on living/working in the capital? Smart city technology is not at the sexy end of the spectrum – it is much more functional. However, the key challenge that London faces is to reduce pain points (overcrowding, pollution, congestion) rather than to add excitement, and in this regard urban technologies play a very significant role. As a medieval city, London must retrofit technology solutions into its fabric, in a way that virgin cities, delivered by Google for instance, do not. Some of these solutions will work much better in the latter, which puts London at a strategic disadvantage. To respond positively London needs to emphasise its relative strengths (like history and culture) and use technology to mitigate the negatives. Increasingly large swathes of developable land are held in single private ownerships. These are the bedrock of London’s future evolution. The most profound tech change going forward is going to be digital automation. If you look to Asia however, London is still a very low- density city.