Regional coworking in the UK: what it actually takes

The case for regional coworking in the UK does not need making anymore. Manchester alone has 1.4 million square feet of flexible workspace and is still growing, and operators who have been London-focused are starting to look north and west with genuine intent.

What is less settled is what regional expansion actually requires.

The assumption, often unstated, is that what works in London travels. You take the brand, the fit-out approach, the product, and apply it somewhere else. Some operators have done exactly that and it has worked. Others have found that the thing that made them successful in one place did not transfer as cleanly as they expected.

What actually travels

The difference tends to come down to something less tangible than product or location. It comes down to the relationships between the people running the space and the people using it. A well-designed building in a strong location will get people through the door. What keeps them there – and what makes them tell other people – is harder to replicate at scale.

Last week the BBC ran a piece about remote workers settling in coastal and rural towns across the West Country, with coworking spaces in Somerset and Cornwall at the centre of it. What came through was how much local understanding mattered. The operators making it work were not importing a model from somewhere else. They were building around the people already there.

That is a useful frame for thinking about regional coworking more broadly. The opportunity is real, but it is not uniform. What works in Manchester will not automatically work in Leeds or Bristol in the same way, because the member profiles are different and the relationships that drive retention are built differently in each place.

The structural conditions in regional markets are tightening too. Grade A space is increasingly being held back for traditional lettings, and as supply shrinks, rents are rising. But as Paddy Kennedy from Colliers observes: “the desk rates aren’t rising in line with rents,” and that gap is what makes the commercial case harder to build. 

The operators doing it well tend to be the ones who have done the work before they commit, on what their members actually need, what the local market will bear, and what they are genuinely able to deliver.

A conversation worth having

Those are not easy questions to answer alone. They are the kind that benefit from being in a room with people who are working through the same things.

At GCUC UK in Manchester this June, Paddy will be sharing live market data on where regional coworking is growing, and what separates the operators making it work from the ones finding it harder than they expected. 

With more speakers and sessions still to be announced, it is shaping up to be a room you do not want to miss. If you are thinking seriously about regional coworking, or already doing it, we hope to see you there.

4 and 5 June, CAMPFIELD Manchester. Early bird tickets are open until 30 April.