The Daily Telegraph - Saturday - Money
Meet the cross-country super-commuters
With WFH here to stay, more people are living in Cornwall and Scotland but working in London – and they do the journey in their sleep. Alexandra Goss reports
The view through the carriage window as the train enters the sweep of Mount’s Bay on its final early morning approach to Penzance never fails to thrill Chris Salt.
“Every time, rain or shine, it’s exhilarating,” said Mr Salt, who is part of the Up and Down Club, a growing band of people who live in Cornwall and commute weekly to work in London by sleeper train.
He and his wife own a farmhouse outside Penzance and also have a flat in the capital where Mr Salt, the chief executive of Headland, a reputation agency, usually stays for four days a week.
When he returns to the West Country, Mr Salt, 61, gets there just before the 23:45 departure from Paddington. “I want to go to sleep as fast as possible and I don’t even notice we have left the station,” he said.
The train arrives at its last stop, Penzance, at 07: 54 the following morning. “Those views after Truro as you get closer to the sea are just beautiful – it really hits me that I’m coming home,” he added. “Covid really confirmed that Cornwall was home for me.”
Since the pandemic began, the number of people in the UK who work from home has more than doubled, from 4.7m to 9.9m, while almost a quarter of people now do hybrid working, according to the Office for National Statistics.
This shift has had profound effects on the housing market. Richard Donnell, of the property website Zoopla, said: “Our recent consumer survey found that those who expect to work at home more are five times as likely to move in the next 12 months than those that expect no changes in working patterns.”
Estate agents have noticed an increase in long- distance moves to places such as Cornwall. Estate agency Knight Frank said the number of Londoners buying in the South West in the 12 months to June was 50pc above the five-year average, in large part due to the adoption of hybrid working.
Christopher Bailey, of Knight Frank, said: “While west Cornwall had already started to see a shift in demographics before the pandemic, with a handful of workers commuting from Newquay airport, post- lockdowns the stigma attached to WFH has evaporated. This is a game changer that genuinely allows people to live this far west, commute weekly to London and go surfing three or four days a week. It’s a proper quality-of-life move.”
Scotland has also seen a surge in buyers from south of the border. Knight Frank said the number of UK-based prospective buyers ( excluding those already in Scotland) looking to purchase in the 12 months to July 2022 was 14pc above the five-year average.
Of this group, those in London and the South East comprised the largest part, making up 71pc of all buyers, the estate agent said.
Bookings for the sleeper train services to Cornwall and Scotland were up an average of 175pc between March and June this year compared with the same period in 2019, according to ticketing website Trainline. Passengers from Penzance to London rose 17pc, those from Edinburgh to London increased