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London Office Workers Still Spending Some of Their Week at Home

London Office Workers Still Spending Some of Their Week at Home

Offices are starting to fill up again, but it’s still not where Londoners are spending their entire work week.

More than 80% of London-based office employees who participated in a JPMorgan Chase & Co. survey said working full time either from home or from the office were their least preferred options after the ending of pandemic restrictions, analysts led by Neil Green wrote in a note.

The analysts polled about 650 workers between Sept. 30 and Oct. 12, with about two-thirds of respondents saying they were back in the office on a regular basis. Only 37% said they had been going in five days.

“This data strongly supports the trend for flexible offices,” the analysts wrote. “Employee demands are evolving.”

England scrapped all legal restrictions on social distancing in July, and although office workers have been trickling back to London’s financial districts, attendance remains below pre-pandemic levels. Hybrid working is here to stay, NatWest Group Plc Chairman Howard Davies said last month.

Workspace Group Plc, which owns offices in London that are let out on a flexible basis, is the “purest play” on the trend toward flexible offices, according to the JPMorgan analysts. 

©2021 Bloomberg L.P.