A return to the five day office week within two years

The Centre for Cities think tank believes that we will see the return of the five day office week within as little as two years.

Whilst the UK currently enjoys a blend of home and office working. It is the popular option while the UK is recovering from Covid 19. However, analysts predict a return to the ‘traditional’ 9 to 5 working office week within as little as two years.

Currently, Government advice is to work from home where possible. The next Government briefing on Covid 19 is due June 21st, where it is believed that all remaining social distancing rules will be lifted.

Paul Swinney, Centre for Cities director of policy and research, wants the return to the office to come soon. He feels working from home stops “interaction with other people” which leads to new ideas and information sharing. Mr Swinney says it is the spontaneity of meetings in an office that help, rather than having to preschedule meetings in advance.

Has the office week been missed?

The amount of people who worked from home doubled in the pandemic. Despite this, the Office of National Statistics reports that many people didn’t work from home, still experiencing the office week.

The move to home working was detrimental to the office property market. Demand for office spaces is finally beginning to rise following the lockdown, albeit from a very low starting point.

Savills Estate agency says the take up of office space has risen significantly since the second quarter of 2020. Greater London says top tier office spaces are seeing “record rents”.

Jessica Bowles, director of strategy for a commercial property developer, told the BBC a lot of the leases are short and there is an unprecedented call for flexible office space.

Many people renting office space state businesses can’t see themselves giving up their office, instead simply wanting to “use it differently”. Instead offices are becoming collaborative spaces. There are fewer desks and it becomes a space where people “can come together and create and innovate”.

The return of the office week a god send for commuter businesses

This news from the think tank Centre for Cities will be welcome by all the business reliant on commuters.

James and Naomi Morris run a cafe in Birmingham. They set up Morridge in 2019, specifically targeting city workers. James says he is seeing a very slow rise in returning office workers, particularly on Wednesday and Thursdays.

They are expecting more workers to return following the ease of restrictions on June 21st. He says his customers have told him to expect the majority of colleagues back by September.

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