eFinancialCareers

Forget the difficulty in finding the people for financial services jobs, Scotland might struggle to find offices to put them in.

Property consultant Jones Lang Lasalle has warned that Edinburgh faces a shortage of office space, but it seems it’s not just space in the Scottish capital that’s in short supply.

Scotland is fast becoming the region of choice for back-office roles. Citigroup employs around 235 people in Edinburgh, BNP Paribas created 370 jobs in June last year, HSBC, Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan all have a Scottish presence, and Barclays Wealth plans to add a further 500 to its Glasgow operation by 2009.

Jones Lang Lasalle’s analysis warns that available office space in Edinburgh has slipped to just 4.5%.

Cameron Stott, director of agency and development at the firm, says: “Without new space coming through, Edinburgh will have few opportunities to attract inward investors and businesses.”

So, will Glasgow be the place to be for any large-scale recruitment for financial services roles? David Budge, of the Glasgow International Financial Services District, thinks not.

“The theory that anyone looking at a major financial services investment in Scotland over the next six months, bringing hundreds of jobs, would automatically choose Glasgow doesn’t really work,” he says. “We’ll have one new development by the third quarter of 2008 and a further 650,000 square foot which will be completed by the same time in 2009.”

What’s more, the shortage has driven Glasgow’s rent up to £29 per square foot, just £1 less than Edinburgh, according to surveyors Lambert Smith Hampton.

Does Scotland offer any other prime locations, full of cavernous spaces idly waiting to be filled by financial services firms? No.

David Smith, the Scottish head of Lambert Smith Hampton, says: “Financial services firms favour big city centres, usually where the labour pool is. The only instances I know of firms locating elsewhere have just been call centres.”

He adds that Scotland is presenting a unified front to attract international investment: “There’s always been a differential between Edinburgh, which has been for the fund management, higher-end jobs, and Glasgow which has been for the back office. They’re now marketing themselves together a bit more, largely to do with labour supply and also to compete with other financial centres.”