Coworking said out loud at Prime Minister's Questions
In this week's news:
- Coworking gets raised at PMQs
- Have your MP visit your space
- Loneliness Awareness Week
- Back the work as a Coworking Community Builder
Coworking gets raised at PMQs
This week at Prime Minister's Questions, Lauren Edwards MP made the case for coworking.
She told the Chamber that flexible and coworking spaces regenerate town centres like hers in Rochester and Strood, bring people onto the high street, and support local economies.
Then she put the Valuation Office Agency problem on the record: spaces reassessed as single larger businesses, operators losing small business rate relief, backdated bills of up to three years running into hundreds of thousands of pounds. She asked the Prime Minister for an urgent solution.
Keir Starmer said he recognised the role flexible working spaces play in regenerating high streets, and committed a Treasury Minister to follow up with her.
Lauren said "coworking." The PM said "flexible working spaces." He didn't pick up the word. But the issue is now on the floor of the House, and a Minister is on the hook to respond.
She did it because Roland invited her into Dragon Coworking in Rochester. Six months after that visit, she stood up and made the Prime Minister answer for what our spaces do. One invitation, one walk around a space, and it's in Parliament six months later.
Jane Sartin at the Flexible Space Association has been carrying this behind the scenes all year.
If you only reshare one post on LinkedIn this year make it Jane's post about 'Keir and Lauren' - Find it here.
The word "coworking" gets said in PMs question time!
The timing matters. Felicia Fai and Phil Tomlinson at the University of Bath have been researching coworking and innovation in the UK for years, and their academic paper puts hard data behind what operators have known all along.
Independent coworking spaces aren't just desks for rent. They're local, social infrastructure.
- They work as informal business support for people who'd never walk into a formal scheme.
- They help first-time founders learn the language of business.
- They keep entrepreneurs, and their spending, in the local area.
That's what's happening inside your space. Felicia and Phil have the evidence, documented and published, for you to use.
The path is in this week's LinkedIn Show Notes #54.
Bernie J Mitchell
How do you talk about the value of your coworking space?
Following the Coworking Alliance Summit last week there's a conversation running at the top of the LinkedIn Coworking Group right now about how to articulate the value of your space when you're talking to local government.
Come and join in, here is what Melissa wrote:
I’d love to see more recognition that independent coworking spaces aren’t simply selling desks. They’re helping new businesses grow, bringing people together, supporting the local economy and adding character to our high streets. Melissa Richards
Have your MP visit your space
Invite your MP in. Walk them round. Introduce them to your members. Let them see what you already know. Roland did it, and look where it ended up.
- There are exactly 75 MPs covering Greater London right now — bumped up from 73 at the last election.
- London has 32 boroughs (plus the City), but the political map doesn't neatly match the council map.
- Constituencies are carved up based on voter numbers, which means your MP's patch probably bleeds across a couple of different borough lines.
- Jane Sartin shared the FlexSA MP Engagement Toolkit here.
Find out who they are. Invite them in. Use this link to find your MP
Loneliness Awareness Week
After the LinkedIn post about mental health, Stacey from The Tribe flagged that it's Loneliness Awareness Week. I didn't even know that was a thing. A lot of people got in touch off the back of it. So if you can do something this week, do it.
This isn't a new idea. Jo Cox spent her time as an MP dragging loneliness out of the "side issue" pile and into national policy.
She said loneliness quietly shrinks a person's life, and it doesn't care who you are. The old, the young, carers, the bereaved. She didn't want to live in a country where people are left lonely and forgotten. It's the 10th anniversary of her murder this year.
When Phil and I ran a space in Euston, we put on a Great Get Together with the GMB Union next door. We did an art club. On that one day, we met more people from our own central London neighbourhood than we ever had before.
We stopped being each other's customers and became neighbours. The restaurants, the chemist, the stationery shop — all out on the street with us.
That's the whole point. Right now Ewan Buck and I are working with Ben from Talk Club on how to connect more coworking spaces with Talk Club. This isn't a one-week thing. It's a long-term one.
Find out about Loneliness Awareness Week.
Coworking Community Builder - back the work
The London Coworking Assembly is the home of independent journalism and research for the people building coworking communities.
It's 100% reader-funded. No ads. No sponsors. No pay-to-play.
The podcast, the research and the writing you just read exist because Coworking Community Builders decided to fund them. If this work matters to you, back the LCA as a Coworking Community Builder for £100 a year.
It keeps the Coworking Values Podcast free and public, unlocks the private feed (raw, unfiltered, turned up to 11), funds the Coworking Citizenship research project, pays Urban MBA students to work on our projects, and sends 10% to European Coworking Assembly projects.
The first Coworking Community Builders are already in.
✅ Become a Coworking Community Builder
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