Is government advice stopping employees going back to their offices? Not in London, Manchester and Edinburgh
New research has shown that employees across the UK, and particularly in London and Manchester, are ignoring the Prime Minister’s 22 September announcement that we should all work from home if possible.
The weekly Return to Work index from Huq Industries tracks the rate at which people are returning to work in six cities: Birmingham, Bristol, Edinburgh, London, Manchester and Sheffield.
With pre-pandemic average workplace attendance indexed at 100, London and Manchester saw attendance at 27.51 and 46.70 respectively as of 27 September, up from 22.62 and 35.91 on 20 September.
Edinburgh and Sheffield also saw a slight increase in people returning to work this week, up from 40.29 to 41.36 (Edinburgh) and from 51.57 to 52.09 (Sheffield).
Only Birmingham and Bristol saw declines in workplace attendance following the PM’s announcement: from 56.51 to 53.35 and from 42.31 to 32.44, respectively.
The index is produced by Huq Industries, which publishes daily economic indicators across a range of themes and industries using its first-party, anonymised geo-mobility data.
Conrad Poulson, CEO at Huq Industries, comments: “The data presents a fascinating picture. One the one hand, some people will have had a taste of being back in the office and may want to stay there irrespective of the government’s recommendations. On the other hand, others may seize on any opportunity to continue working from home. But it’s also important to remember that given the spread of sectors covered by our data some employees might be obliged to attend their workplaces.
“It will be fascinating to see what happens in the weeks ahead, as these new guidelines sink in.”
The analysis shows a steady increase in workplace attendance in all six cities from the start of June. Birmingham has seen the largest increase over the past few weeks, with attendance there tracked at 36.54 on 16 August.
However, the data shows that London, where commuting by public transport is king, has seen far fewer people returning to work at offices than other major cities in the UK.
Conrad Poulson, adds: “London has a highly-developed public transport system, but concerns over safety have caused many people to remain wary of using tubes, trains and buses and this may be a factor in why so few Londoners have gone back to the office. In other cities, where commuting by car is more prevalent, more people have gone back to their workplaces.”
Huq’s mobility data and research products are derived from its first-party panel of opted-in, anonymised mobile app network that produces 0.5bn spatial and place interaction events daily. Measures range from mobility to store-level footfall, industrial activity to urban transport flows with high accuracy.
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