BA mothballs £200m HQ for six months

BRITISH Airways office staff look set to continue working from home until next year.

The airline is to mothball most of its opulent £200million headquarters near Heathrow for at least six months.

It is a bid to slash costs amid a severe economic blow to the aviation industry.

BA joins a list of other top firms including Google, RBS, Pearson, KPMG, Facebook, Coca-Cola and Vodafone that have already suggested office staff might not have to return until 2021.

And City of London leader Catherine McGuinness said banks had told her only 40 to 50 per cent of office workers were likely to return this year.

It led to growing fears for thousands of smaller city centre businesses that rely on busy offices. BA sources insisted that no timeline has been set out. But the trade website Head for Points reported staff in back office roles will work from home for six months or even longer.

A BA spokesman said: ‘We are exploring every option to control our costs.’

It came as Barclays boss Jes Staley said he wanted staff back in offices because ‘it is important to get people back together in physical concentrations’. He added: ‘We also have a responsibility to places like Canary Wharf, like Manchester, like Glasgow.’

The comments are an apparent U-turn on his previous remarks that big city offices ‘may be a thing of the past’.

A Mail audit of big companies found dozens have no immediate plans for staff to return to offices.