Published Article

Headline‘The days of being in the office five days a week are long gone’ says Councillor

Short Headline'Being in the office five days a week are long gone'

StandfirstLeader of Islington Council tells London Assembly Economic Committee that we will never return to being in the office everyday

London Assembly hosted an Economy Committee discussing the impact on working from home in central London.

Quick Facts about CAZ

• CAZ stands for Central Activities Zone. CAZ is London’s centre and one of the most attractive and competitive business locations.
• It is renowned worldwide for its shopping, culture and heritage. 9/10 of London’s most visited attractions are in the CAZ.
• There are 2.2 million jobs within the CAZ.
• This is equivalent to 6.4% of employment in the UK.
• The CAZ accounts for about 44% of London’s Economic output. That’s 9.4% of the national output.

Not Everyone has been able to adapt

Councillor Kaya Comer-Schwartz, Leader of Islington Council and Deputy Chair of Central London Forward, says the banking and insurance sector has adapted “really well to the concept of hybrid working”.

Other sectors like retail and leisure, which Cllr Comer-Schwartz describes as the ‘support system of office workers’, has felt a big knock on effect.

Improving Local High Streets 

Rosie Day, Director of the London Property Alliance, says the hybrid model of working in the office and at home has improved local high street’s business.

“We don’t necessarily want those local high streets to suffer but there is also strategic importance of central London being vibey and busy”.

Research shows that workers are coming into central London 2.3 days of the week with a mid week peak between Tuesday and Thursday, with “Thursday being by far the most popular of the working week” according to Rosie Day. This is 60% of previous levels.

‘Reinventing’ Friday 

Cllr Comer-Schwartz proposed the idea of “reinventing Friday from a work perspective” to encourage workers into their offices in Central London.

If businesses used Friday  as an “opportunity to bring teams together” other sectors such as the leisure market could see growth.

To entice workers as well as visitors Cllr said we need to be open to testing “new brave things”.

She suggested TFL trialling a “flexible fare policy” on Fridays.

Positive future or cause for concern?

Cllr Comer-Schwartz says “there is no certainty that hybrid working is either a plus or a minus at this stage”.

Rosie Day said that even if office spaces become unoccupied there “is a potential opportunity for those spaces changing and being reinvented for different uses in the future”.