How does the Midlands compete for digital tech innovation

Nigel Turner, executive director, Kier Property discusses where the Midlands sits in terms of digital tech innovation in property.

 

There’s not a huge amount you can do from a building perspective in as far as innovation if you are just building a shed. We have all gone for making buildings greener and photovoltaics on the roof. You can digitally connect a building but it’s more of how the user users the building than how it’s built. Retail and offices are very different though. For sure office buildings will be digitally connected and hardwired so you can link up with the back office and think how you occupy with open floor places that are more flexible and often not fully fitted out, just shell and core, so the occupier can do what they want. Retail is massively dynamic and there is a fundamental shift particularly with tertiary and some potentially secondary centres which we are quite excited about. Ultimately I think there will be more housing brought in to replace them and mixed use schemes with retail and leisure integrated.