Bursting the London bubble Covid’s caused economic shift

Sir, –There was an interesting discussion on the news recently about the pros and cons of people continuing to work from home, or, as the UK Government desperately wants, returning to the office.

The UK Government’s main concern being the City of London, which has been a ghost town for months.

Working from home, for many, works perfectly well, but the government says people need to get back to work, mainly, it would seem, to support the London economy, cafés, restaurants, sandwich shops, taxi drivers, and so on, not to mention justifying massive rentals for fancy office blocks.

But why would people want to spend half their lives, and half their salaries, on the train, bus, tube, taxi, travelling

from wherever they can afford to live, to an office in one of the most expensive cities in the world, when they could roll out of bed at a reasonable time, walk the kids to school, nip in to the spare room, and fit whatever work they need to do around their other commitments, bright and alert, with energy to spare for quality time with the family.

They are getting their lives back.

And the money they

would have spent in the city will be spent supporting local businesses where they live, thus spreading the economic benefits, cooling the superheated London bubble, perhaps even lowering house prices to a level that makes them affordable for ordinary Londoners.

And if some wealthy landlords or property speculators lose money – too bad.

In the longer term there might even be a

lowering of the financial chasm between the south-east and the rest of the UK, and a bit more governmental attention paid to the needs of the nation, rather than just the City of London.

Les Mackay. 5 Carmichael Gardens, Dundee.

Sir, – The extraordinary overreaction of so many governments which turned the Covid-19 pandemic into a viral panic may have produced a profound economic shift.

My generation, born during the war, saw Keynesianism replaced by Friedman’s monetarism in the 1980s and central banks given independence in the 1990s.

The post-war challenge was to prevent depressions but in the Sombre Seventies that was overtaken by the need to end stagflation.

Today we require a structural plan that allows the business cycle to be managed and financial crises to be fought without a politicised takeover of the economy.

Good luck with that! Dr John Cameron. 10 Howard Place, St Andrews.