A Strategy for City Centre Employment
Within the Durham City Vision period, Government Departments and Agencies, the University, the City and County Council’s will remain significant City centre employers. The retailing and leisure industries, alongside culture will increase in importance as providers of employment.
Concern has been raised that the City centre does not have the capacity to accommodate the
transport movements associated with new office development. Historically, the level of commuting
has caused problems in terms of congestion and parking. However, there is now a Park & Ride for the City centre which will ease the existing problems. All new office development will have to investigate how it can be absorbed without exacerbating the existing transport situation.
But the Durham City Vision anticipates that the combined effects of other strategies will enhance
the attraction of the City centre to prospective employers and that this must be promoted as part of a comprehensive strategy.
Traditionally there have been only two factors of production, that is labour and capital. The “knowledge economy” proposes that information and knowledge have and will continue to replace physical work to create wealth and economic prosperity. Any locality can use this increased information mobility and access to a global workforce to deliver transformation of their economies. One NorthEast has harnessed this energy for change in their Regional Economic Strategy which also is the core future transformational change proposed within County Durham’s Economic
Strategy. Durham City centre is well placed to use this change working alongside existing businesses and Durham University to benefit from opportunities delivered through these rapid changes. This means companies will enjoy the process of innovation using the creativity of their “knowledge workers”. In the City this means we will focus on enabling e-economies and e-retailing for example and find ways to deliver maximisation of the links between the University and private sector. Durham will be able to exploit opportunities for applying innovation in its business sector. We will then be able to harness the value given by the fact we are an information society in a knowledge economy.
There are three main types of employment to be encouraged:
- General Office Accommodation
- Small-scale “Professional” Office Accommodation
- Workshops and Managed Workspace for New Businesses and the Creative Industries
GENERAL OFFICE ACCOMMODATION
Recent development has been concentrated at Aykley Heads. There has been very little recent office development in the centre of Durham and the City centre remains dominated by Millburngate House with other office accommodation in much smaller office buildings. This strategy envisages a number of opportunities to enhance the volume and range of office accommodation in the City centre, in both standalone and mixed use schemes:
Partial Redevelopment of Millburngate House
To include partial redevelopment which will release greater potential for development around the site perimeter, which in turn will help to offer different types and scales of office or other commercial accommodation. This will make the space available to a wide range of tenants in the context of a strong “cluster” of office use.
Redevelopment of Millburngate House
This has the potential to be the most important redevelopment project in the City centre which could be compared, in its iconic qualities, with the Peninsula and the Gala Theatre complex.
During the Durham City Vision period, to 2020, the existing building and office accommodation will need to be re-evaluated. At the appropriate time engagement with the site owners National Savings and Investments will facilitate a review of the full options available. If a full redevelopment can be agreed this would be the most prestigious redevelopment site in the centre of Durham. The Vision sets out a strategy to ensure the site could be capable of accommodating a wide range of facilities as a mixed use project, including:
- New office space, still on a large scale,
- Residential accommodation
- Commercial leisure, perhaps including a cinema
- Commercial and public uses fronting the River
- Residential accommodation
Gilesgate
Redevelopment of land liberated by reconfiguration of the roundabout could include office accommodation well connected to the primary road network and forming the eastern gateway to the City centre. This would be part of a mixed use development with housing.
Mount Oswald
This site has been long reserved for an important investment of regional/national significance. This opportunity could be taken up in the Vision period and a significant new employer accommodated within the City close to the City centre.
“PROFESSIONAL” OFFICE ACCOMMODATION
Such accommodation is already distributed across the City centre providing space for accountants, solicitors, surveyors and estate agents and other professional services. A major opportunity for additional accommodation is presented by the withdrawal of the University from listed buildings in Old Elvet which have potential for full or partial (with residential) conversion to create professional offices.
WORKSHOPS AND MANAGED WORKSPACE FOR NEW BUSINESSES AND THE CREATIVE INDUSTRIES
Just as the City requires space for new businesses in the retail sector, so an entrepreneurial culture requires space for new businesses in managed workspace where the entrepreneurs can concentrate on the development of their businesses rather than in complexities of owning or renting premises. Such facilities may occupy existing, converted buildings which lend themselves to reasonably priced but characterful space, or they require purpose built premises designed to meet the specific needs of such businesses. The key is to find a committed developer/operator.
There are few such opportunities in the heart of Durham, but there is the opportunity to cluster such facilities in the Claypath area as part of the emerging cultural quarter. This should be the primary use for consideration in the redevelopment or reuse of existing sites and buildings in the area.
