ONE THIRD WON’T GO BACK TO OFFICE BY CHRISTMAS
8 OUT OF 10 FEAR RETURNING TO DESKS
ALMOST a third of London commuters who are working from home say they do not expect to return to their offices before Christmas, according to poll findings seen by the Evening Standard.
The results suggest that the struggling central London economy faces a huge challenge for the rest of the year and beyond, with tens of thousands fewer workers spending their wages in shops, cafés, restaurants and pubs. Business leaders said bold new thinking was needed to encourage those who do go into work to stay out longer and spend more to avoid huge damage to central London’s economic “ecosystem”.
The survey of 1,000 office workers around the country for the Portland Communications agency found that only 21 per cent have already returned to their desks. However, 58 per cent said they expect to be back by September, 72 per cent by December and 81 per cent by next year or later.
A regional breakdown suggests that London
commuters, who generally have further to travel, will be slower to return, with only 68 per cent back by December and 80 per cent next year.
More than eight out of 10 said that “not feeling safe in an office space” was the key factor in determining whether they were prepared to return.
The polling also brought bad news for London’s cultural sector, with more than a third of London and Home Counties residents saying they will wait until 2021 or later to visit art galleries, museums, theatres and cinemas.
Government advice is still “work from home if you can” and avoid public transport if possible. However, Boris Johnson is expected to scrap this within days to encourage people back to work as evidence mounts of the heavy price being paid by city centres.
Many London employers have warned that they will struggle to accommodate 30 to 40 per cent of staff returning to offices at any one time because of the need to maintain social distancing.
It has been estimated that the queues for lifts in the City and Docklands’ biggest skyscraper office blocks could stretch for more than a mile.
Business leader Ruth Duston said: “I talk to businesses daily about their intentions for returning to offices and it’s clear that we need to take a big dose of reality when it comes to the future of the office sector.
“Workers will return but it is likely to be in smaller numbers for many months to come, and there are indications that many businesses are changing working practices for the long term.
“While of course worrying, we must adapt to this changed reality. Businesses must innovate to encourage those workers coming back to be more engaged with the city. Incentives for
⬤ THE lack of shoppers in central London has forced Russell & Bromley to shut down seven branches weeks after they reopened. The shops at Marble Arch, Bond Street, Regent Street, Covent Garden, Jermyn Street, Brompton Road and Tottenham Court Road were all put back into cold storage. A spokeswoman said: “We have implemented social distance safe systems and remain optimistic that trade will return to the streets.”
workers to add on a trip to the museum or a meal out when they do come back to the office should be commonplace.
“There also needs to be a focus on highlighting the real value of collective interaction. Rather than offices continuing to function in the traditional way, perhaps we need to promote them and re-design them as innovation and exchange hubs, places where colleagues can come together to collaborate — a new model that sits harmoniously with increased numbers of people spending some of their working week at home.”
Some major central London employers do not expect more than a small proportion of their highly paid workers to be back on site for the foreseeable future. US investment bank Goldman Sachs, which employs about 6,500 at its European headquarters in Holborn, has only about 700 in each day. Japanese bank Nomura has capped the maximum allowed back in the office at about 300 — or 15 per cent of its UK staff, according to a Bloomberg report.
The boss of one major City broker said it had reopened its offices last Monday with measures to allow up to 40 per cent of the 2,000 workforce to return.
However, he said: “Very few have actually turned up. The infrastructure to ensure social distancing is now in place but the mindset isn’t there yet from employees.
“The way we have worked over the last few months has proved we do not need to come back but it’s a loss for more junior members of staff. We have an open plan office so it’s normally useful for them to earwig on directors’ calls to clients and understand how the company works.
“That said, there’s external meetings where we wouldn’t have had space to take a junior along where now they can dial in. Our juniors have had three years’ experience in three months, although they’ve barely slept in that time.”
Figures from the New West End company out today showed the West End has been far more badly hit than the centre of other major cities. While footfall is down 57.2 per cent on high streets around the country, the shortfall in the West End is 76.2 per cent.
⬤ The Royal Academy today reopened to the public for the first time in almost four months. The gallery on Piccadilly opened to members last Thursday and will now open four days a week between 11am and 4pm to the general public.