How will remote working change Sheffield?

Good afternoon readers — and welcome to this week’s Monday briefing.

Today we have a look at how remote working might impact Sheffield long after the pandemic is over. We also feature some important news about the Sheffield tree inquiry and recommend a fascinating museum in Darfield.

Thanks to all of you who signed up after reading our weekend story looking back at 60 years of the Gleadless Valley. You can still read that piece here.

Last week we sent out two great stories to our 525 paying members: the first about forgotten Sheffield artist Kenneth Steel and the second about the efforts being made to bring the beautiful but neglected Wardsend Cemetery back into use. An extract from that second piece is below:

Howard remembers crossing the bridge and seeing a set of steps shrouded in trees. “I wonder what’s up those steps?” he said to himself. To his surprise, he found the cemetery. The tops of headstones could just be made out in a mass of chest-high brambles and crawling plants. “It was so overgrown, you couldn’t even see it,” he says.

This week we’ll send two more including one about the new consultation on the future of the city centre. To get both those stories and help us grow from a small startup into a newspaper that can take on bigger stories and more ambitious investigations, please consider subscribing using the button below. It costs less than £1.40 if you pay for the year up front.

This week’s weather

Our weather forecast comes from dedicated Sheffield weather service Steel City Skies, who say: “The coming week sees a continuation of the high pressure dominated outlook. It relocates to our west after midweek, briefly allowing a shock of northerly winds to chill us that little bit more windy.”

Monday 🌤 plenty of sunshine expected to start the new week, with light winds and temperatures heading to around average after a cool start. Colder still overnight though, with a widespread frost and some mist/fog patches, too. Highs of 8-9°C.

Tuesday ⛅️ mist and fog patches slow to clear in some places, with frost also sticking around for much of the day in sheltered spots. Sunny spells then developing, with highs of 5-6°C.

Wednesday ⛅️ the first of two modelled cold fronts comes down and brings more cloud and the odd spot of rain to greet us on Wednesday, so not as frosty. A clearing trend with sunshine developing later with highs of 7-8°C.

Thursday 🌥 the second cold front sweeps down, with a few wintry showers generally well away to the coasts. A cold northerly breeze setting in, with some bright spells developing. A raw feeling day with highs of just 3-4°C.

Friday ⛅️ our high pressure, initially squeezed away by the northerly incursion, re-establishes to the west and controls our weather. The chilly air will still be with us, but it won't be quite as bitter as Thursday. Some weak spells of sunshine and patchy cloud, highs of 5-6°C.

Outlook: No signs of our resident high pressure going anywhere fast, with a continuation of quiet, cool and settled weather expected for next weekend 😎 Frost and fog possible overnight.

To see the full forecast and keep up to date with any changes to the outlook, follow Steel City Skies on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram.

The big story: How will remote working change Sheffield?

Top line: For many of us in Sheffield, particularly people in professional jobs, remote working has become a fact of life. But will our working lives ever get back to normal, and if not what impact will that have on the city’s economy?

Data: A study co-authored by Jesse Matheson from the University of Sheffield says that as a result of changes brought about by the pandemic, home working could increase by 20% over its pre-Covid level. This means that in future around 30% of all work may be done remotely.

• The report says local spending could increase by more than 50% in many residential neighbourhoods and approximately 77,000 jobs in retail and hospitality may either need to relocate or be lost altogether.
• Relocation is predicted to be higher for better-paid professional occupations, increasing spending even more in the most affluent areas. In Sheffield, these changes could exacerbate geographic inequalities.

Upcoming areas: In the whole of England and Wales, three of the places that stand to gain most from this shift are in the suburbs of Sheffield: Walkley, Mosborough and Halfway, and High Green and Burncross. The study found an extra £1m per year could be spent on retail and hospitality in each area.

What about the city centre? It is predicted that around £38 million in annual spending will leave Sheffield city centre (some of which will go to residential suburbs). This translates into approximately 1,100 retail and hospitality jobs.   

National context: Remote working may result in a shift of £3 billion in local spending (1.5% of the total). The worst affected area is predicted to be Central London but many other city centres could see big falls in spending as well.

Policy impacts: The effect of the shift from city centres to suburbs on both remote workers and those providing retail and hospitality services could be profound. The report says councils will need new policies in several areas if they are to cope with the changes.

• Jobs: Policymakers should seek to ensure that the jobs that could be lost in city centres like Sheffield’s can be replaced with new jobs in suburban areas. 
• Office space: More remote working may mean less need for office space. Some of this could be repurposed into residential accommodation or leisure spaces.
• Transport: Public transport routes that connect areas with high rates of remote working with those where many local services workers live could be needed.

Context: A report by the Office for National Statistics found that 85% of those working from home wanted to use a "hybrid" approach of both home and office working in future.

Bottom line: Millions of column inches have been written about the novelties, hilarities and frustrations of home working since the pandemic began. But now attention is shifting to how ongoing home working might impact local economies.

We will be covering this issue in more detail in a members’ piece soon. And on Thursday, we’ll have a piece looking at the council’s consultation on the future of the city centre.

Home of the week

This two-bedroomed apartment in Neepsend is part of the Cornish Place development, the former home of cutlery manufacturer James Dixon & Sons. It is on the market for £260,000.

Covid-19 update

Cases: After the huge rises in recent weeks, the Covid case rate in Sheffield (the number of positive cases per 100,000 people over seven days) is now falling back equally rapidly. As of last Tuesday, the rate stood at 1,414.3, 33.4% or 4,170 cases down on the previous week. The average for England is 1,272.4, down 34.7% on the previous seven days. 

Hospitals: However, the number of people in hospital with the virus is still high, although very few of them are getting seriously ill. As of last Tuesday, 283 patients were in hospital in Sheffield being treated for Covid-19, up from 232 the previous week. 11 of these patients are in ventilation beds and 15 deaths linked to the virus have taken place in the last week.

Vaccines: Almost 80% of those aged 12 and above have now had at least one dose of a Covid vaccine and almost 55% have now had a booster jab. Director of public health Greg Fell said last week it was “a concern” that more than 100,000 adults in the city were still unvaccinated.

Policing bill protest

Hundreds of protesters came to Sheffield city centre on Saturday to protest against the government's controversial Police, Crime and Sentencing Bill, which will be voted on by the House of Lords this week. Opponents say the legislation is draconian, criminalises peaceful protest and could have made it easier for the police to arrest demonstrators during the recent Sheffield tree protests. The BBC has a good explainer on the issues at stake here.

Our favourite reads

1. The BBC reports that Sheffield Council is expected to formally appoint former UN humanitarian chief Sir Mark Lowcock to head up its long-awaited inquiry into the street tree scandal. Sir Mark has previously organised famine relief operations in Ethiopia and Yemen. A recent biography for him is on the UNOCHA website here.
2. An interesting story in the Sheffield Telegraph about the hunt saboteurs who try to disrupt fox-hunting in South Yorkshire. Reporter Steven Ross speaks to Zeb Dee, an animal rights activist who has been involved with the Sheffield Hunt Saboteurs for 15 years. She tells him the “alien and medieval practice” should have died out long ago.
3. The latest installment in Roger Quail’s blog detailing every gig he’s ever been to covers the visit of Kid Creole and the Coconuts to Sheffield Poly in 1982. But as ever, in addition to the music, Roger also looks at the history of the time, including in this piece the sinking of HMS Sheffield. There is also a podcast and playlist to go with it.
4. There was a nice piece about the Millennium Gallery’s new exhibition Where We Live in the Yorkshire Post on Saturday. The show, which is open now, features Sheffield’s Mandy Payne as well as four other artists, each of whom focus on an area they are familiar with including Park Hill flats, Northumberland, Leeds, Lincolnshire and London.
5. An interesting blog from local writer Nigel Slack about whether council chief executive Kate Josephs should resign following revelations that she attended a leaving party at the Cabinet Office in December 2020 in contravention of Covid rules. This morning, The Star reported that the embattled council chief was “clinging on”.

The view from Meersbrook

Thanks to Sheffield photographer @c.zack.h on Instagram for letting us use this fantastic photo of Meersbrook Park with the Royal Hallamshire Hospital behind.

Things to do

Art: The Cupola Gallery’s annual Under the Bed sale is now open. Now in its 25th year, the sale gives art lovers the chance to buy work by amateur and professional artists at prices from £1-£350. The huge exhibition contains thousands of paintings, sculptures, prints, jewellery, ceramics and photography and runs until February 5. The Hillsborough gallery’s opening hours are 10am-6pm Monday-Saturday and 12pm-4pm on Sunday.

Visit: A short journey outside Sheffield but the Maurice Dobson Museum and Heritage Centre in Darfield looks worth the trip. Dobson was a former coal miner, war veteran and boxer who lived an openly gay lifestyle in the village at a time when homosexuality was illegal. The museum tells the history of Darfield and also contains antiques collected by Maurice and his partner Fred Halliday. Yorkshire Live has a nice piece about it here.

Tour: As we reported in our members' piece last week, Weston Park Museum’s new Kenneth Steel exhibition is now open. On Wednesday, January 19, exhibition curator and Steel historian Edward Yardley will give two guided tours of the show, one at 11am and the second at 1pm. Participants will find out about the life and work of the Sheffield-born artist and hear how the exhibition came together. Places are free but you must book in advance.

Comedy: Scouse superstar John Bishop brings his Right Here, Right Now tour to Sheffield City Hall on Thursday, January 20. Bishop is a regular on some of the biggest comedy shows on television and also makes his own documentary programmes for the BBC, ITV and Sky. The tour is the comedian’s eighth stand-up show and will see him visit the UK, Ireland, America, Canada and Europe. For tickets click here.

Listen: Sheffield’s Emily Maitlis was interviewed by Ken Bruce for BBC Radio 2’s Tracks Of My Years programme on Sunday. The show gives stars the chance to choose their 10 favourite songs, with the Newsnight presenter opting for records by Leonard Cohen, Eva Cassidy and Sheffield favourites Pulp. Bruce also talks to Maitlis about dancing at the Leadmill and busking outside Boots in Broomhill. To listen to the show click here. 

Members’ comments

“What I love about The Tribune is how you dig up these amazing stories about Sheffield and about things we never hear about.” (A land of 30,000 stories), James Coleman

“Really enjoyed this, and looking forward to visiting the exhibition today.” (Once beloved, almost forgotten: The legacy of Sheffield artist Kenneth Steel), Matthew Paul

“Good article. Lets the anti-vaxxers have their say while pointing out what the experts think.” (On the streets with Sheffield’s anti-vax activists), Tony Mecia

“Such a shame that these well meaning experiments didn't persist as planned. A really sensitive piece. Thank you.” (From 1960s utopia to Sheffield’s sink estate), Andy