Offices have big benefits - Rishi

RISHI Sunak has said it was ‘really beneficial’ being in an office at the start of his career as he highlighted the benefits of young people being in the workplace.

In a clear sign the Chancellor is keen for staff to return to the workplace, he spoke of the helpful relationships he had made.

It comes after he said last month that it was ‘really important’ for young people to be in a workplace and that he was looking forward to ‘slowly getting back to that’.

Since July 19 the Government has no longer been instructing employees to work from home in England and guidance published online says it ‘expects and recommends a gradual return over the summer’. Asked about a return to offices, Mr Sunak told LinkedIn News: ‘I have spoken previously about young people in particular benefiting from being in offices. It was really beneficial to me when I was starting out.’

The Chancellor said that on a visit to Scotland last week he met young people starting careers in financial services, an industry he has also worked in. ‘I was telling them [about] the mentors that I found when I first started my job [who] I still talk to and they have been helpful to me all through my career even after we have gone in different ways,’ he said. ‘I doubt I would have had those strong relationships if I was doing my summer internship or my first bit of my career over Teams and Zoom.’

But Mr Sunak also said the Government has left the decision up to businesses.

He said: ‘We’ve kind of stopped saying that people should actively work from home and have now left it up to businesses to work with their teams to figure out the right approach. In terms of a return to work, we have said we would expect that and recommend that to be gradual from when the restrictions eased.’

Mr Sunak was speaking on a visit to Aston Business School in Birmingham.