Business | Property

WeWork warns of Covid-19 impact on UK offices

WeWork has a number of offices in London
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Joanna Hodgson
6 January 2021

The  headaches WeWork is facing  in Britain due to the Covid-19 crisis have been outlined in a new report, with the offices giant warning of  lower occupancy levels and delayed new openings.

WeWork International, a holding company that provides services to WeWork's international subsidiaries and is also the parent company of WeWork's UK properties, gave the update in accounts just filed for 2019.

The report said parent WeWork Inc as a whole, including its operations in the UK, “is facing a period of uncertainty and expects there will be a material impact on global demand for our space-as-a-service offering in the short term, which may adversely affect the 2020 results”.

The co-working office giant has 70 sites in London, and has been hit by less people being in town since last March when the first Covid-19 lockdown started.

Scores of people continue to work from home, in line with government guidance.

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The firm’s report said that amid the virus crisis, the company has experienced lower than historic occupancy levels on average in the UK, and a reduction in new sales volumes across new and existing locations.

It said actions have been taken to mitigate the operational and financial impact from the pandemic. 

Among a number of measures has been temporarily delaying certain new openings, and reducing spend on things such as marketing.

The company said it has sufficient liquidity to mitigate the near-term uncertainty associated with Covid-19.

Last year in the UK the firm introduced a number of measures to promote social distancing within buildings. That included reducing the amount of people that can use breakout areas and meeting rooms at one time, and enhanced cleaning regimes.

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