Return to the office is vital for economy

BRITAIN’S economy will not recover to pre-pandemic levels until workers are able to return safely to offices, the founder of a recruitment group has warned.

Robert Walters, chief executive of the Robert Walters Group, said it is “essential” for his industry and other sectors to be able to return to their normal workplaces instead of remote working.

He said Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s £30billion Plan for Jobs announced in his summer statement on Wednesday is an “encouraging move” for Britain’s battered employment market.

But he believed that many companies across a raft of sectors cannot return to full strength with a remote workforce, especially those involved in “people businesses” like recruiters and advertising agencies.

Mr Walters said: “I think it’s essential, and we have heard it from so many different people, from bankers to all sectors.

“We need to get back to the way things were.”