Third of staff reject return to the workplace

ALMOST one third of younger workers intend to ignore ministers’ pleas to return to the workplace.

The Government hopes the reopening of schools next month will herald a mass shift in workers going back to their offices but a study by University College London (UCL) suggests that a large proportion of the workforce may carry on home-working for good.

A separate survey found that 50 of the UK’S biggest employers will not even ask staff to return to their workplaces full time. It suggests ministers may be able to do little to prevent a permanent structural change in the economy, with businesses that rely on the office worker trade, such as pubs and sandwich bars, among those in peril.

The UCL Covid-19 Social Study, which has monitored the attitudes of 70,000 people since lockdown began, found that 32 per cent of 30- to 59-yearolds and 29 per cent of those aged 18 to 29 plan to work from home more often after the pandemic ends.

The BBC found that 50 of the UK’S biggest employers will not ask staff to return to the office full-time in the near future because it is too difficult to maintain social distancing rules.

The world’s biggest investment bank, JP Morgan, has already told staff in London that they will be continuing to work remotely on a part-time basis, and Linklaters, one of London’s elite “Magic Circle” law firms, said its employees will be free to work from home for up to half of the week.

Andy Street, Mayor of the West Midlands, said predicting the “death of the office” would be premature. He said:

“Cities have repurposed themselves before over decades – the coronavirus has just speeded it up.”

Rob Groves, an office developer at Argent, which has just completed the construction of 120,000sq ft of office space in Birmingham’s Chamberlain Square, insisted there would always be a need for a workplace where people could congregate.

He said: “I’d like to challenge people saying they will never need an office and ask them in 12 to 18 months if that was the right decision or just a reaction to what’s happening now.”