Time to tackle the rentier economy.

Crikey that was an epic post and we are probably derailing the thread

No in many companies they are not, in yours they have been. In my experience it tends to be larger modern companies who have access to technology. So they wouldn't be emailing colleagues they would be talking face to face via zoom etc. DH is at a senior level in a company managing housing projects involving budgets of millions. They have worked completely productively at home since March. In fact they moved their workforce to home working earlier than most as they were ahead of the game in protecting their workforce. I have nothing but admiration for the way they have handled it.
Yes I have had a couple of conversations interrupted by children during lockdown but this is due to some years not being back at school not because of homeworking. Those interruptions have given me an insight into the home lives of some I work with ( not my direct team) and have helped strengthen relationships. I heard an article on R4 the other day saying those insights helpsl you to get to know people you work with in a different way. It depends on your approach.
My brother in law, works at senior level in science and research, he is saving £700 per month on commuting and is in my view a much more functioning employee (not because of the money!). Yhe benefits to the environment and to peoples quality of life have been considerable. I have no skin in this gain as the majority of my job is normally public facing but the 'office part' of my job I will continue to do from home, it is much more efficient for the company.

Working from home does not necessarily mean flexi time. One of our DSs has been working from home since Lockdown, but has to strictly keep to his Office hours. This is noted via his computer.
The other DS works for a global tech company and always works from home, sometimes in the middle of the night due to world time differences. Lockdown has meant that he can’t travel of course, but he’s never been so busy.

Galaxy in regard to your post @07:29 today, office staff working from home are certainly not as productive as those that work from a dedicated office. That is our businesses experience and that of very many other companies throughout the lockdown. Emailing and messaging others cannot replace the practicality of actually talking to a work colleague when collaboration is required. When staff are in the office all at the same time, collaboration is at its highest efficiency.

An example of the poor conditions that can be created by people working from home was demonstrated with my wife a few weeks back. She was on the phone to an employment agency as our business wished to recruit an additional cleaner. However, while trying to give details to the person on the other end of the phone children could be heard screaming and shouting in the background.

Although no doubt the person was doing her best to accommodate my wife and our business as a potential customer it meant that things had to be restated several times and the person on the other end of the phone had to leave the conversation at one point.

Not a good business acumen for that company obviously and that is why staff are being brought back into their workplace offices

Grandad that may be your experience but it is not the experience of many. I know of a number of companies who have given up their offices completely after lockdown. Manylarge companies have realised home work is much more productive for themselves and their employees. The impact on the environment, childcare, the cost of renting offices particularly in London etc. I am nearly everyone I know are financially and time wise much better off. We need to be a creative in the way we work.

J52

Google and Microsoft are expecting that their workforce will work from home for at least a year.
If you can save on expensive office space, why not?
The workers also save on commuting costs. The world is changing, for sure.

Many of those that have been working from home are now being recalled to work once again from company offices.

Employers are finding that where office staff have to collaborate with each other then working individually from home is simply not efficient or effective. By example to the foregoing, where two workers have to collaborate, then one may work starting early morning at home while the other may decide to commence work in the late afternoons and work on into the evenings.

The above can be in inevitable due to personal family and child care commitments at home, but where the two employees are collaborating it can have a heavy impact on the efficiency and productivity output of a business.

The above was our companies experience of home working during the lockdown and also the experience of many other businesses. We also found that employees very much missed the "office life" and camaraderie that surrounds working in a group. That simply cannot be recreated at home with all the distractions that effect trying to work from there.

MaizieD

Liam Halligan: 'Home Truths'

A review here:

youngmoneyblog.co.uk/home-truths-book-review-housing/

Thank you Maizie. Somebody lent me a copy, so I didn't have it to hand.

I think it’s way beyond time that the London wealth was redistributed around the country .

I for one couldn’t care less if the city of London looked like a ghost town . My town has looked like that for decades .

IS! not Os.

Os it worth signing this?

campaigns.shelter.org.uk/make-sure-government-commits-building-social-housing/thank-you?share=node/104&sid=139719

Liam Halligan: 'Home Truths'

A review here:

youngmoneyblog.co.uk/home-truths-book-review-housing/

BTW London is already losing post-Brexit investment and jobs to EU big cities. It really is going to have to adapt.

I'd rather that companies moved their HQs to Manchester, Liverpool, Newcastle, Birmingham, Leeds, Bristol or wherever with smaller hubs of workspaces in some of the smaller towns which have suffered most over the last few decades.

I'd like to see transport infrastructure reflect the new places of work and not all radiate out of London.

London can and will look after itself, but there's no doubt there will be change.

All things must change. London is primarily a workplace and home to millions. The tourists will return when it's safe to do so and it might actually be more pleasant than it has been over the last few years.

Whilst I somewhat agree growstuff London is the Capital City, it attracts millions of tourists each year along with investors.

I do not think it can be allowed to implode.

There are so many far more pleasant places to live.

GrannyGravy13

I for one hope that people will return to work in London because at the moment the city looks like a ghost town.

Many small businesses rely on commuters, whether they are cafes, dry cleaners, independent book stores and stationary shops along with the coffee shops on the Stations.

That's what some towns have looked like for years. It's about time the economy was redistributed. Much as I used to like the bustle of London, it's self-imploded.

Google and Microsoft are expecting that their workforce will work from home for at least a year.
If you can save on expensive office space, why not?
The workers also save on commuting costs. The world is changing, for sure.

Varian
That's exactly what my step daughter is doing. She will save £500 per month.

I for one hope that people will return to work in London because at the moment the city looks like a ghost town.

Many small businesses rely on commuters, whether they are cafes, dry cleaners, independent book stores and stationary shops along with the coffee shops on the Stations.

bought = brought* (Ggggrrr! I'm sure that's what I wrote in the first place.)

It has been true for many years that houses in the SE of England, in commuting distance of well paid jobs in London have been far more expensive than similar houses elsewhere in the UK.

I think that this pandemic may lead to a big change.

People who have found it quite possible, and quite congenial to work from home during lock-down. may well start to ask "why should I commute into central London every day, exposing myself to risk, when I can do my job just as well from home?"

Perhaps they may need to go to the London office once a week, once a fortnight, once a month or once a year.

OK , I'll do that, but in the meantime if I'm going to work from home, I will find a home which is much more affordable and much more pleasant to live in than my London commuter belt home.

If enough people think this way, the price of London houses will fall and the price of homes elsewhere will rise.

Surely a good thing??

Our council (usually Tory, but currently run by independents) has actually bought some private rented property, bought it up to scratch and now rents it at fair, controlled rents.

I think that McDonnell's extreme ideas were too much even for those who usually vote Labour.
Boris was the lesser of two evils apparently. Marginally.

I wasn't sure annep1, sometimes I re-read what I've posted afterwards and wonder if it's clear.

Fennel

This country is too small for our growing population.
The land in the SE is so expensive, rents are higher because demand exceeds supply. Most of the work is there.
This fact underlies most of the inequalities. But if building of homes expands into rural areas agricuture will be affected and we will be eventually short of food.
So it's a catch22 situation.

That's not actually quite true. There are hundreds of acres of land even in London, which could be used for housing - even more in the surrounding home counties - which are essentially scrubland. It's useless for farming, but is owned as an investment and is "land banked".

There's a really good book by Liam Halligan about this. (I'll see if I can find the title.) Halligan is a "local" and I've heard him talk, but he's also been on TV. Strangely, he's a Tory, but he doesn't belong in the typical mould.