UK boss of Savills Richard Rees on the return to the office and creating a new WDA like body

A new Welsh Development Agency-type body tasked with curating key sites for development and de-risking them to entice private investment should be considered, Richard Rees, the UK managing director of property advisory firm Savills, believes.

Welshman Mr Rees, who has 8,000 staff under him across 136 offices in the UK, believes it is also time that more staff working in the public sector are encouraged – while hybrid working is here to stay and was already taking root prior to the pandemic – to spend more time in offices.

The then-Labour administration under the First Minister, the late Rhodri Morgan, took the decision to abolish the WDA back in 2004, which saw staff absorbed into the civil service of the Welsh Government.