LETTERS to the EDITOR As taxpayers feel the pinch, civil servants fret about their work-life balance

SIR – It is an insult to taxpayers that many civil servants are still working from home.

Meanwhile, in the real world, those who work in the private sector – which generates the wealth to support Civil Service profligacy – are facing insecurity and spiralling costs.

Good luck to Jacob Rees-Mogg.

Roy Hodgson

Little Brington, Northamptonshire

SIR – I have no objection to employees working from home if – and only if – their employers do not use this as an excuse for appalling service.

Bill Halkett

Ormskirk, Lancashire

SIR – The Civil Service unions are threatening an all-out strike if the plans to cut 91,000 jobs go ahead (report, May 14).

Will anyone notice any difference? Richard Freer Ribaute-les-Tavernes, Gard, France

SIR – I read of the trouble people have had trying to obtain new passports and driving licences. Meanwhile, I have been able to renew insurance policies, and buy and sell investments. The private sector is functioning – so why can’t the public sector do the same?

Sitting in an open carriage heading home from work in London in the late 1980s, I listened to a recent graduate talking to a friend, extolling his new employment in the Civil Service. He did not actually have to do any work, he said. He just had to claim he needed more staff under him in order to increase his pay grade.

It seems not much has changed.

R K Webb

Axminster, Devon

SIR – Over 30 years as a freelance writer, I always rented an office.

I could have worked from home, but the presence of other people working in other professions – accountancy, law, charity – made for a supportive work atmosphere, and made me more productive. Of course, I was only paid for what I wrote, and not for my rank or position. The outcome more than compensated for the journey.

By contrast, a journalist friend of mine, working from home, used to tie his leg to his chair as it was all too easy to go out for the paper, take the dog for a walk or make another coffee.

I’ve also read that a well-known cartoonist had a garden office and, each morning, would kiss his wife goodbye, walk to the office for the day, and come home in the evening.

John Stringer

Harbury, Warwickshire

SIR – Demonising home-workers as privileged and work-shy ignores the fact that they have often borne substantial costs to build or repurpose rooms, purchase office furniture and equipment, and sometimes even buy or rent larger houses.

More importantly, a transition to home-working when feasible offers significant economic, environmental and societal benefits. These include vibrant city centres with higher residential use, supporting those businesses that previously serviced commuters; the relocation of other businesses out of cities into surrounding towns and villages to service those able to work from home; fewer journeys, resulting in lower carbon emissions; and parents being able to see more of their children.

Dr David Slawson

Nairn