Home working ‘not as good as office’

Boris Johnson has issued a renewed call for a return to the office in the wake of the Covid pandemic, saying working from home does not work.

The prime minister said staff were “more productive, more energetic, more full of ideas” when they are in the workplace alongside their colleagues.

“My experience of working from home is you spend an awful lot of time making another cup of coffee and then, you know, getting up, walking very slowly to the fridge, hacking off a small piece of cheese, then walking very slowly back to your laptop and then forgetting what it was you’re doing,” he said.

In contrast, he said that getting those workers who are continuing to operate from home back into the office would drive up productivity.

“It will get our city centres moving in the weekdays and it will be good for mass transit. And a lot of businesses that have been having a tough time will benefit from that,” he said.

“We need to get back into the habit of getting into the office. There will be lots of people who disagree with me, but I believe people are more productive, more energetic, more full of ideas, when they are surrounded by other people.”

With many officials still working at home, the PM has previously railed against the “postCovid manana culture” in the civil service.

Ministers have publicly blamed largescale home working for the backlogs in the Passport Agency and the DVLA.

Earlier it emerged the PM had instructed ministers to cut 90,000 civil service jobs, potentially saving £3.5 billion-a-year, as the government looks for measures to ease the cost-of-living crisis (see opposite page).